CHAPTER 5

As promised! :) Sadly next week I know there won't be a chapter because I have many projects I need to be working on. But I will write soon :)

After reading a couple of chapters of his book Bellamy slammed it down on the table, he need to get outside and stretch his legs, Clarke still hadn't come upstairs but he'd leave her a note and wouldn't be gone too long.

The door shut heavily behind him with a groan, the sun was hot and immediately soaked into Bellamy's dark shirt and jeans. He would have continued to enjoy the warm sun too if he hadn't noticed one of the safe house water bottles leaning against the side of the building.

Bellamy growled as he started to put things together, Clarke hadn't come out of her room because she was already out. Just when she was starting to grow on him she went and did shit like this! Pulling out his phone Bellamy activated the security cameras in the safe house and bunker, he got angrier when his suspicion was right and the blonde was nowhere to be found. What got his heart pumping most though, was the fact that she would have left before the sun was up, which made him worry that maybe she wanted to leave when he couldn't stop her.

He started tuning in a slow circle looking for a trail to follow, Miller was a better tracker than him but his friend had taught Bellamy a thing or two during their time overseas. After not seeing anything the first time around, Bellamy moved closer to the safe house door, looking to follow Clarke's trail. If she had any smarts in her at all she would have stayed close to the road, but just inside the tree line to avoid being seen.

Bellamy just hoped she hadn't gotten caught in any of the booby traps that were set up all over the property for miles. That thought made him pick up his feet, the vision of Clarke speared to a tree was not one he wanted to come across.

"Clarke?" Bellamy called roughly when he got deeper into the woods.

"About time!" He heard from 20 feet away.

Bellamy's whole body relaxed upon hearing her voice, but when he remembered why he was out there looking for her, that feeling went away and was once again angry.

"I should leave you down there for the shit you just pulled." Bellamy snarled before he could even see her.

Thankfully Clarke had lucked into falling into the most harmless traps around.

"I don't like my dad would approve of that." Clarke looked up when sunlight disappeared and Bellamy's face appeared.

"He might." Taking her in, Bellamy noticed Clarke's hard was back and she was in running clothes.

That took away his theory that she was trying to run away, like him she seemed to need to get out of the bunker but going out in the middle of the damn night was no way to go about it.

"Can you just get me out, my knee is the size of a freaking baseball." At that Bellamy noticed the effort in Clarke's voice to disguise her pain.

Not only was she stubborn but she always seemed like the type to cover up her pain in front of others.

"You dropped 10 ft into a dirt hole, trust me, there is a lot worse out in these woods. I'll go back and get a ladder, I'll be back."

"Just reach your arm down, I'll jump."

Bellamy scoffed, "On that knee?" Clarke crossed her arms and glared up at him, Bellamy sighed. "If you think you're so smart we'll try it your way."

Getting down on his from Bellamy reached his arms as far as he could, leaving about three between his fingertips to Clarke's. He watched in frustration as the blonde tried to pump on one leg and as she stuck her tongue out in concentration and saw the anger on her face when she realized she was not going to get out this way.

"Can I go get the ladder now?" Clarke hadn't even opened her mouth before Bellamy was power walking away.

.

It was another 30 minutes before Clarke was climbing the wooden rungs to distance herself from her worm friends below. Her gaze locked with Bellamy's then and she could see the anger plain as day on his face, he was mad as she knew he would be. It seemed any time she did anything this was always the face she'd get.

Turning from him, Clarke started limping back the way she came, "I assume I will be walking myself back to the house."

"Sorry Princess, I didn't plan on needing a wheelchair while we were out here."

"I get you mad, you don't have to be snarky about it."

"You are damn right I'm mad." Bellamy dropped the small ladder he's been carrying. "What if someone had been out here huh? I had no fucking clue you had even left the bunker, am I going to have to handcuff myself to you to keep you safe?"

"It has been over a week, plus isn't this place supposed to be hard to find?"

"We got our delivery two damn days ago, someone could have followed them up here and been waiting for you to do what you always do."

Clarke laughed without humour, "And what exactly do I always do?" She didn't give Bellamy a chance to speak, "Exactly! You don't even know me, I'm a mission to you. The only reason you're mad at me right now is that you didn't want to get fired after you explain to your boss that you've lost your charge."

"No!"

"Yes! It's obvious Bellamy! You've been avoiding me 80% of the time since we've been here. If you don't want to be here then just trade out with Miller or something."

"I have not." He knew he was lying.

"Bull!" Clarke stomped away, she was getting to a point where her frustration was starting to make her eyes water.

"Keep your voice down!"

"Why?" She turned on him. "It isn't like anyone is up here to hear me."

"How would you know that? You spent all day in that hole."

"Exactly, I have had nothing but time to listen to the damn leaves blowing in the wind since I've been down there. Trust me, we are the only ones out here."

"Clarke stop!" Bellamy yelled, he realized too late that they had strayed from their original path during their argument.

Clarke's foot hit a metal plate, she went to step off of it when he yelled at her.

"Do not move your foot!" Bellamy's command was enough to paralyze her.

Bellamy walked up to her slowly, "What?" She asked him.

"You are standing on a landmine, if you lift your foot and shift the pressure in any way we are both toasts."

Clarke's jaw dropped. "You idiots put landmines out here?"

Bellamy glared at her, "We didn't expect you to be talking many mid-nights strolls through the woods."

"Ok well, we have another problem." Clarke looked down at her leg and Bellamy's eyes followed.

He say the red swelling around her knee cap, her leg was shaking in an effort not to move. Her knee wasn't going to hold out for long.

"Don't lift your foot." He told her, slowly lowering himself toward the ground to get a better look at the device. "This model had a delay switch." He muttered to himself.

"Bellamy." This time her voice was shaky and vulnerable.

"I have some good news."

"What's the bad news?" Clarke replied, Bellamy, smiled softly at her.

"The good news is I can get you off of this, bad news is in order to do that I have to go get some tools from the bunker."

Clarke shook her head, "I can't." She was shaking hard.

"You can." He locked eyes with her, "I will be back in 15 minutes, don't you dare take your foot off that plate, you understand?"

Clarke bit her lip, her knee was shooting pain up her body making the muscles spasm.

"Stop wasting time then." Clarke's words were breathy as she squeezed her eyes closed.

There were a couple of moments of hesitation filled with silence before Bellamy moved, backing away from the blonde slowly, as soon as he was a safe distance away to not disturb the device he took off running.

The bunker came into sight after a couple of minutes, he knew the distance between Clarke and the bunker was going to be what took the longest, finding the pin was no problem, the silver medal was stored away with other counter devices fail safes.

With the cool material gripped tightly in his hands Bellamy took off running again, the way back took longer as he stumbled in an attempt to get back as fast as possible. Bellamy found his ears had been straining to hear any signs that Clarke's knee had given out. When the blonde was finally in his eyes line again Bellamy slowed and walked carefully over to her, the sun had beat down on her, reddening her shoulders and causing her to perspire.

"I'm back." He said softly. "I'm going to have to dig out the mine so I can insert this pin, to lock the device."

Clarke kept her eyes closed in pain and concentration and just nodded subtly. Bellamy moved fast as he secured her foot in place by holding her ankle in his hand, his other hand digging around the device.

"I know." Bellamy soothed when he heard Clarke whimper above him. "40 more seconds."

When he slid the pin into place Bellamy stood up, he took Clarke's hands in his. She opened her eyes wide to look at him.

"I just took care of all the hard stuff, now all you have to do is step towards me."

"That's it?"

He nodded encouragingly, "That's all you have to do Princess and I'll even carry you back to the house. All you have to do is step towards me."

Clarke looked into his eyes, taking a deep breath she lifted her foot off the metal plate and took a step in Bellamy's direction. As soon as her foot was off Bellamy yanked her towards him and they both hit the ground and rolled together. A couple of seconds later there was a low click and the area they'd just been standing on exploded.

Clarke's legs were straddling Bellamy's waist, her head had hidden in the space between his neck and shoulder when the explosion went off, his arms were wrapped around her holding her tight.

"I thought you said it wouldn't go off." Clarke breathed when she pulled sat up, looking down at him.

"The pin I grabbed was for a 38 model, that one was a 20, the pin was too big, only the tip fits in the hole."

"You lied."

"The metal was enough to hold the explosion off for a couple of seconds so we could get away, once you released your foot, the trigger pushed the pinout of the hole, delaying the explosion."

"You just pulled that out of your ass, you didn't know what was going to happen."

"I knew if I didn't try something your knee would have given out."

Clarke threw her arms up, "You could have died."

"That's my job. I have to be prepared to take risks like today to keep you alive and I did."

Clarke didn't like the sound of that at all, how could he just be okay throwing his life away for hers. Clarke wasn't important, she was most likely not going to med school in the fall and would end up being some artist living on her friend's couches.

"Not for me." Clarke went to try and stand but her knee failed her and send her back in Bellamy's lap.

"Brave Princess." Bellamy shook his head, from flat on his back he had no choice but to look up at her.

Clarke's brow frowned, "Don't call me that."

"I think it's stuck."

Bellamy ended up giving Clarke a piggyback ride to the house, her knee had been hurt worse when she's had to use it to keep pressure on the bomb.

Once inside, Bellamy locked the door before depositing Clarke onto the small kitchen island. He retrieved her ice pack from the fridge and handed it to her while he continued looking around for a compression wrap.

"You'll want to keep off your feet and keep this compression bandage on at all times."

Clarke waved him off, "It already feels better, I'll be fine."

"Escape artists don't get a say," Bellamy said, stepping between her legs. "The only reason your knee feels better is that you aren't standing on it."

"I can wrap it myself."

Bellamy pulled the material away from her, she still looked pale from her efforts this afternoon, but her shoulders were pink.

"Fine you wrap, I need to get the burn cream for your shoulders, it's only going to get darker as the sun goes down."

Clarke placed the ice pack on her knee and tried to wrap her knee up but rubbing her shirt against her shoulders made Clarke stiffen up, accidentally dropping the ice pack to the ground.

"I got it," Bellamy said rejoining her.

After wrapping her leg securely Bellamy moved to grab the burn cream. He helped Clarke gently off the counter, turning her so he could reach her back. Bellamy tried to move the multiple straps of Clarke's bra and tank top, finally, she just gave up and quickly pulled her shirt over her head. Bellamy sucked in a breath, her bare skin bringing his mind back to the day on the beach and that green bikini.

As soon as the cream touched Clarke's skin she cried out, Bellamy's free hand grabbed her hip to keep her in place.

"It stings." Clarke bit out between her teeth, "A heads up next time would be great."

"Heads up," Bellamy muttered, putting another glob of cream on her reddened skin.

Clarke turned then to get his hands off her, the cream hurting more than they burn.

"I know you're still mad."

"Wow, observant." Bellamy snapped butting down the tub of green paste.

They were going to hash this out until they were blue in the face.

"What is your problem with me? So I left the damn safe house and ended up in a hole, so what? You found me eventually."

"Injured! Do you not understand how that would piss me off?" Bellamy folded his arms over his chest but didn't move away.

"You mean to tell me I'm the first assignment you've had who hasn't 'stepped out of line' a couple of times."

"Yes, usually the people I'm protecting allow me to do my job, and stopped calling yourself that."

"What?"

"And assignment, stop dehumanizing yourself."

"But that's what I am, even you said it. I'm just your assignment, you are only here because my dad and your bosses told you to be." Bellamy shook his head, "No what?"

Bellamy looked her over and stepped toward Clarke, pulling her in by her hips, his lips meeting hers seconds later. Clarke pushed against his chest all too soon, their eyes looked and they seemed to be trying to find answers in the eyes of the other.

When she didn't find what she was looking for, she asked again. "No what?"

"I was assigned to protect Jake Griffin's daughter and I am doing my job and will continue to do it until I'm told otherwise, but the way I felt when that guy was gawking at you at the lake or when you were being shot at and I could feel you gripping my shirt trembling under me. How about the way I felt today when I realized you weren't safe inside like I thought and then when you stepped on that landmine and my heart stopped. All of that isn't because you are an assignment."

Clarke's knee protested as she rose up on her tippy toes and yanked Bellamy's body back to hers via his shirt in her fists. Still aware of her knee Bellamy ran his hands around the back of Clarke's thighs and lifted her back onto the counter.

"Off," Clarke said into his mouth, she'd been trying to pull off his shirt for the last 10 seconds, but they were pressed so close together she couldn't.

Bellamy pulled away for less than a second, getting his shirt off before pulling Clarke back into his arms. Their lips moved perfectly together, their chests pressed together. Bellamy's hands moved down Clarke's waist, he squeezed her hips and pulled her closer to him before his hand slid down her thigh. When his hand came in contact with the ice pack he hissed and pulled back.

"What you said before, about leaving when someone tells you too."

Bellamy shook his head, he knew where her thoughts were going because he'd had the same ones.

"Like I said, my job and we are two different things."

Clarke just nodded, smiling softly she pulled Bellamy's lips back to her for a few short kisses.

"I'm getting kind of tired, can you help me downstairs?" Clarke asked through her yawn.

Bellamy raised his eyebrow, "Did get much sleep while you were in your hole?"

She rolled her eyes, "No see I was too busy worrying about why they were there in the first place."

Bellamy shook his head, stupid stubborn girl. "One more thing-" He held up two white tablets to her, "these will help you sleep."

"Pain killers?"

He nodded, handing her a glass of water and her shirt, Bellamy helped Clarke down to her room and left her for the night, after making her promise she wouldn't leave the bunker again.