Howdy guys! I am SO SO SO SO SO sorry that this is so late. I had breast reduction surgery on the 7th, and it's been a long recovery. But I'm back! And I should be back on schedule now. Hope y'all enjoy the chapter, this is where some of the canon divergence starts (I promise it's not too much!).

Still clutching the coat that she got from one of the dead kids she and Wells had buried, Rachel approached Monty, Harper and Nate following behind her. Their friend stood staring blankly towards the dropship where Clarke, Wells, and Finn had just left, not even moving to acknowledge their presence.

"Monty," Harper spoke softly, slowly taking his hand in her own. "Monty, what happened out there?"

He shook his head, finally letting a few tears loose. "We got to Mount Weather, and Jasper went over the river, and then he..." he trailed off, head and tears both falling.

Miller crossed his arms, "What river? Where?"

Harper shushed him, leading Monty over to sit on a low stump. "Take it slow, Monty. You're here now, you're with us, you're safe." He nodded, still crying as he leaned into Harper.

They let him cry for a while, giving him time to get all the emotion out of his system before they started asking more questions. When his tears finally quieted to a sniffle, Miller squatted down in front of the stump, "How'd this happen, Mont?"

"There's a river to the east, a big one. We had to cross it to get to Mount Weather, but when Jasper did…it just came out of nowhere and hit him. We were on the other side of the river, we couldn't get to him, so we just ran. And now I can't…I can't." he broke off, sobbing starting again, but he still tried to get his words out. "He screamed, and I can't get the sound out of my head."

Miller squinted at him, "He screamed, when he was stabbed?" Monty shook his head, "After you guys were running back to camp?" He nodded, still shaking in Harper's arms.

Miller stood, and grabbed Rachel's arm, pulling her aside. After making sure they were far enough away that Monty couldn't hear them, Miller spoke in a whisper, "If he screamed, that long after they started running away…" he paused, taking in a big breath, "Rachel, he might still be alive."

"Are you sure, or is that wishful thinking?" Rachel was barely holding in her own tears, and she knew that it would totally break Monty, maybe Harper too, if they got their hopes up only to find Jasper's body. But Miller seemed so sure, and as he continued to explain his theory, she couldn't help but find herself hoping too. "Alright," she snapped, silencing Miller's theorizing, "God I hope you're right. We can go try to find him. But Monty cannot come."

"Rach, we need someone to show us where the they were."

"He wasn't the only one who was there." She flicked her eyes up the hill, where Bellamy was interrogating his injured sister.

Miller shook his head, "He'll never let her go out again. Did you see how he reacted when he saw she was hurt?"

Rachel only smirked and waggled her eyebrows, "Come on, Nate. You know I can be very persuasive." Turning away from him, she trudged up the hill to where Octavia had just limped away from what looked like a heated conversation with her brother. When she purposefully set her foot down on a twig to snap it, however, he was so absorbed in his thoughts that it took him a moment to look to her.

"What do you want?" he demanded.

She crossed her arms and looked to Octavia, who slowly entered the Dropship, injured leg dragging behind her. "Is she alright?"

He nodded, dragging a hand across his mouth. "I think she'll be okay."

Rachel paused, preparing herself for the many different ways he could react to what she was about to ask. "Is she okay enough to go out again?"

Bellamy's face turned to stone. His jaw set and his eyebrows flattened, and his eyes seemed to light with a rage-filled fire. "Absolutely not." He stepped towards her, deep brown eyes narrowing. "Why the hell would you even ask that?"

She couldn't help but be intimidated by him like this, stepping back to give herself space to think. But she had to steel herself and face him. She had to find Jasper. "Because Monty isn't strong enough to come with us, so she's the only person I trust who can help us find Jasper. I need her."

For a short moment, when the fire in his eyes briefly blinked out, Rachel thought she might have gotten to him. But her just turned away from her and ran a hand through his hair, now falling freely over his face since the gel from the day before has faded. He was silent for a moment, then, "I'm sorry Rachel, but your friend is dead. I'm not going to risk my sister just to bring back a body."

As he started to walk away, Rachel began to shake with rage. She felt adrenaline rush into her veins, sparking idea after idea in her mind. But before she could fully process any of them, the adrenaline acted, and her hand shot out and grabbed Bellamy's shoulder. Hard.

They both froze. After a few deep breaths, Bellamy slowly turned around to face her— though her hand stayed firmly on his shoulder. He was surprised, somewhat pleasantly, to see that she was unfazed by the icy look he was (at least trying to be) sending her way.

Before he could figure out what to say, Rachel spoke, still not removing her hand from him. "Look, you want us to follow you. But none of us will do that if you don't show us that you care about us." She finally took her hand off, and Bellamy shivered slightly as the cold breeze hit where her hand had been. She lowered her voice as she stepped closer, looking up at him with fiery green eyes that somehow made him feel like the small one. "If they don't think you care, they won't trust you, they won't respect you, and they sure as hell won't follow you. If you want them to do all that, you'll let your sister help me find Jasper."

Bellamy again found himself speechless as he gaped at her. Her gaze never wavered. He chuckled breathlessly. "You aren't going to let this go, are you?"

"He's my friend. I'm not going to abandon him." She blinked, finally breaking the stare, her eyebrows jumping up for a moment. "But my other point is true too."

Bellamy couldn't help but laugh again. "Fine. I'll come with you," he whipped his handgun out from behind him, and reveled in the surprised, and a little bit impressed look he got from Rachel. "But Octavia stays here."

"We need her to find him."

"No, you don't. We can use Clarke or the kid with the long hair."

"No."

He sighed. "Rachel, look—."

"No."

Bellamy groaned, "Why not?"

Rachel crossed her arms and planted her feet, her lips thinning. "Because I do not like Clarke, and I don't trust Finn Collins. And the last time they left with my friends, one of them got speared."

He couldn't help but admit that she made a good point, but that didn't mean he'd risk Octavia. "Look, I wanna help you, I really do." She corner of her lip flick up every so slightly, and Bellamy found himself mirroring the gesture before he continued. "But there is no way Octavia is coming with us. I know you don't like Clarke— believe me, I don't either —but she's your only option."

Rachel bit her lip as she glared at him. After a long pause, she finally sighed and uncrossed her arms. "Fine. But bring that gun. And some more guys."

"That I can do." He smiled again, wider than he needed to, a small attempt to cheer her up. When she finally conceded a small grin, his own became genuine. "Lemme find someone to take charge while we're gone…"

"Use Miller, and Harper. Maybe one of Murphy's guys too."

"And why should I do that?"

"Miller knows how to keep people happy and calm, how to keep them in line. On the Ark, Harper worked with her parents calculating how to distribute rations, supplies, assign quarters, basically everything. She can figure out how to turn this place into a camp. And one of Murphy's guys because, well… they're scary."

Bellamy laughed. "See, that is why I picked you. You know all that crap."

She cocked a dark eyebrow, a twinkle in her eyes. "Picked me for what?"

Slightly flushed, Bellamy looked away and again ran a hand through his hair, unused to the feeling of not having it slicked back. "You know, to be my number two. Isn't that what you wanted?"

Rachel blushed a little too, the smooth brown of cheeks tinged with a soft pink. She nodded, and draped the coat she carried over her shoulder. "You go get Clarke and Finn, I have a present to deliver." As she started walking back to her friends, she quipped over her shoulder, "And I'd prefer a different title than 'number two!'"

Bellamy really laughed as he too, turned and walked away.

"There we go, that looks gorgeous on you!" Rachel cooed as she finished putting the coat onto Charlotte, the youngest of the 100 delinquents. Only twelve years old, and small for her age, Rachel and Nate had become instantly protective of her since they saw her desperately soaking up heat from the last embers of the first night's bonfire. Nate had brought her over to the parachute, and she spent the night between them, Nate's coat draped over her as a blanket.

Charlotte looked down at the jacket, and frowned, "It's too big. Look, my arms don't even fit through the sleeves!" She sarcastically flapped the remaining fabric of the sleeves to emphasize her point, making Rachel, Nate, and Harper both laugh.

Squatting down to get eye-level with her, Nate took the ends of the sleeves and rolled them twice, before pushing them up her arms so her hands actually poked out. "There, now you can use your hands, and you look pretty badass." Charlotte took another look at herself. Pleased with what she saw, she smiled at Nate, hugged and thanked him, then ran away to show off her new jacket.

Nate groaned as he stood up, the smiled fading from his face as Charlotte left his sight. When they couldn't see her anymore, he turned to Rachel, and Bellamy, who had just emerged from the dropship. "So when do we leave?"

"You two don't." Bellamy said, gesturing between him and Harper. "I'm leaving you two, and Connor here to look after things while we're gone." While he didn't look entirely pleased that Rachel had pressured him into leading a search party for Jasper he had given in, he seemed set in his decision.

"No. No damn way," Nate growled, "Jasper is my friend, he'd do this for me, so I have to do it for him. And there's no way in hell I'm staying here while Clark and Wells go." Harper said nothing, just stared incredulously at him.

Rachel gently put a hand on his forearm in an attempt to calm him down. She'd already convinced Monty, Monroe, and Sterling to stay, and she had a feeling Harper would be reasonable, but Nate was going to be hard to persuade. "Nate, please. I know how badly you want to come, but it's better for everyone that we have someone… well, competent here."

"She's right," Bellamy, having watched Rachel's negotiation with the hot-headed Monroe, had picked up on her style, "If Clarke is right, and there are Grounders out there, we have to protect the camp. We need a good leader here if we're gonna do that." He looked at Rachel, who nodded in confirmation, and looked towards Harper. "And we need someone to actually make the camp."

The blonde looked between them, an eyebrow cocked, "And how exactly am I supposed to do that?"

Rachel stepped towards her. "Use what you parents taught you on factory station, any of the kids you can find that know how to build things, and any materials you can find. There's even a few tools on the dropship."

"What's important is that we make this place safe." Bellamy looked back over his shoulder at the dropship. "We need something to keep whatever is out there out of here. A wall."

Harper barked out a dry laugh. "Right, no problem."

Rachel took her friends hand. "Harp, if anyone can do it, it's you."

Her friend blushed, and hugged her. "Thanks, Rach. I guess I'll do my best."

Before any of them could say anything else, a gravelly voice shouted from behind them. "Are we going or not? Come on!"

Rachel cringed at Finn's voice, and harshly whispered to Bellamy as he followed him back to the Dropship, "You better keep that gun away from me, or I might shoot that asshole before we get to Jasper.

Bellamy laughed.

The group— of which Clarke had typically and annoyingly taking the lead, Rachel noted —barely made it five minutes out of camp before Murphy started complaining.

"Since when are we in the rescuing business, huh?" he hung back behind Rachel and Bellamy, flipping the rusted knife he had fashioned as he walked.

Bellamy didn't look at him when he responded. "We're not." He glanced sympathetically at Rachel. "But we need to convince people we're their best option to follow. Plus, it's a chance to get Clarke's wristband off her."

Rachel had to bite her lip to keep quiet on that subject, but she'd rather do that than walk with Clarke, Finn and Wells, who's tagging along she admittedly, wasn't too upset about.

They walked for a while in silence, the only noise the crunching and squishing of leaves under their feet, and occasional bird call. Rachel always looked around to see if she could spot the source; she so desperately wanted to see a real bird.

Then, after about a half hour, Bellamy stopped.

He just stood there, at the top of the tallest hill in the area, looking out at the seemingly never-ending forest, a content smile on his face. "Bellamy," Rachel whispered, keeping her voice low enough to not reach Clarke and her group, who continued on as they hadn't yet noticed him stop. "What are you doing? We have to get to Jasper. Fast."

Bellamy just looked at her with the same contented look, "Relax, this'll only take a second." He grinned, a sneaky, mischievous thing, as he watched Clarke noticed him far behind them, and start to race back to them.

"Thar she blows," Murphy drawled, stepping back to watch the show.

Clarke stomped up the hill, her eyebrows furrowed and lips pressed together so tightly they almost disappeared. "What are you doing? We don't have time to sightsee."

"Ok, I'll make a deal." Bellamy smiled at her, that smarmy persona that made Rachel so uncomfortable falling into place. "Once you take that wristband off, we can go."

Clarke put herself right in from of Bellamy, making Rachel's heart speed up with rage at the sight of her, and the urge to protect her new friend. "The only way the Ark is gonna think I'm dead, "the blonde spat, "is if I'm dead. Got it?"

"Brave princess," Bellamy drawled, his own anger spilling out from behind his façade.

Finn pushed himself between the two, "Hey, why don't you get your own nickname?"

Rachel surged forward, using her shoulder to force herself between the two guys chests, facing Finn "Come on, 'princess?' Like that's so original." She smirked in satisfaction as she heard Murphy

Wells pushed them apart before Finn could respond. "You guys call this a rescue party?" He looked around them, not seeming to notice that they were all avoiding making eye contact. "We should split up. You said we're close," Clarke nodded at him, "So we should split up. Cover more ground. Alright?"

Everyone reluctantly murmured their agreement, but made no move to pick a partner. After a long, awkward moment, Finn turned to Clarke. "Come on, you're with me." Wells made a move to stop him, but he had already pulled Clarke away.

With a sigh, Rachel turned towards Bellamy, only to find him smirking at Wells, "Come on, Jaha, let's go." He strolled over to the boy, and clapped a hand on his shoulder before leading him away.

"Guess that just leaves you and me, cupcake," Murphy drawled, a smug and satisfied grin plastered on his face.

Rachel sighed and started off into the woods. "Don't talk to me unless you see something."

Murphy jogged to catch up with her, "Aw, come on. Don't you want something to take your mind off of your friend bleeding out?"

She whirled around, fist connecting with Murphy's face before he could even flinch. He doubled over, both hands covering his eyebrow. Rachel stood over him, shaking out her own hurting hand. But she didn't mind it. It only hurt because she had hit bone.

"What the hell?" Murphy shrieked, removing his hands from his face to find blood on them. The skin on his eyebrow had split. That'll scar, Rachel realized, thoroughly enjoying herself.

"If you ever say something like that about one of my friends again, I'll do worse than screw up your face." She stared down at him, surprised he could hold her gaze with the blood flowing down towards his eyes. "Understand me?"

He looked away, his ever-present smugness fading away for the first time Rachel had ever seen. "Yeah, I got it."

"Good." She started walking again before he got up, only knowing he was following when she heard the crunch of his boots on the ground.

He caught up to her, but stayed behind her. After several silent, tense moments, she heard him whisper, "Sorry."

The two walked in silence for a sometime, but while they had found the river the Clarke had told them about, they saw no sign of Jasper. Or of whoever had taken him.

"This is pointless." Murphy complained, idly tossing pebbles into the river while Rachel actually looked for any sign of her friend. "How are we supposed to fine one guy in a forest that's who-knows how big, and with who-knows what possibly hunting us?"

Rachel sighed, "Well for starters, how about a better attitude? If you're this much of a dick and the Grounders get you, I don't think I'll be complaining that much."

Murphy sarcastically laughed, but before he could insult her, Bellamy, Wells, Clarke, and Finn came bursting through the trees. "We found something." Wells said, nearly out of breath.

"Come on," Clarke said, turning to lead the group down the bank of the river. They all fell in behind her, and stayed quiet at first, but after several minutes of nothing, Rachel started to get restless.

"Where are we going?" she demanded.

Finn didn't turn back to look at her, he only pointed in front of them, "It's just up ahead." He led them past a shallow, pool-like area of the river and a small waterfall, and the bank suddenly became rocky, slowing them down slightly as they all took care not to trip

After a few more minutes of nothing, Murphy piped up. "How do you even know this is the right way?"

"We don't." Bellamy answered, "but Spacewalker here thinks he's a tracker." Rachel smiled, and glanced at him, pleasantly surprised to see him smile back.

Wells looked back at both of them. "It's called cutting sign. Fourth year Earth Skills. He's good."

Still leading the group down the bank, Finn called back, "You wanna keep it down or should I pain a target on your backs?" They all quieted. Suddenly, Finn stopped, and fiddled with a hanging twig from a bush, before crouching down to examine something on the rocks.

Rachel heard Bellamy whisper something to Wells, but she was too focused on what Finn and Clarke were looking at to comprehend it.

Blood.

Bright red, still wet blood.

Jasper's blood.

Her thoughts started racing, gruesome thoughts of what they might find, who they might find. Terrible thoughts of having to bring Jasper's body back to her friends. To admit that she hadn't been able to save him.

Then she heard a moan in the distance.

"What the hell was that?" Murphy asked, pulling his knife out of his belt.

Clarke looked to Bellamy, "Now would be a good time to take out that gun." She and Finn started making their way through the brush, Wells and Murphy followed behind. But Rachel was frozen.

Bellamy came up behind her, "You okay?"

Rachel swallowed, trying to hold back tears. "What…what are we gonna find?"

He stepped in front of her, drawing her eyes up to face him. "There's only one way to find out." She felt something cold on her hand, and looked down to see that he had removed her knife from her beltloop, and was pressing it into her palm.

She closed her fingers around the knife, and nodded at Bellamy. He gave her a quick smile, and led her through the bushes, pushing the branches out of the way for her. After a few yards, they caught up with the rest of the group, all of them frozen where they stood.

Rachel stepped up next to Clarke so she could see over the boys, and she nearly gagged at what she saw.

"Oh my God, Jasper." She cried, tears starting to flow full-force.

In the middle of the meadow, Jasper was tied to a huge, sickly tree. His shirt was gone, and his chest was dirty and covered in blood. His eyes were closed as if her were asleep, but his heartbreaking moans let her know he still felt the pain.

"Rachel, wait! Be careful" Wells tried to hold her back, but she ran forward, unfazed by his words. What did trip her up, however, was that Clarke ran with her. She paused to stare, and the blonde ran in front of her.

But as soon as she did, she fell into the ground. On instinct, Rachel fell to her knees and grabbed her arm, stopping her from falling onto the spikes that covered the floor of the boobytrap. Her green eyes locked with Clarke's blue, and the two girls stared at each other for a long moment.

Then the guys reached them, Bellamy first. He fell on his knees beside her.

"Bellamy, help me, I can't get her up." She pleaded, feeling her strength begin to falter.

He looked between them, his expression unreadable. Then, his gaze fell on Clarke's wristband, and Rachel realized what he was thinking.

She hated Clarke, but not that much.

"Bellamy!" she shouted, and his eyes snapped back to her. She widened her eyes, hoping to get her message across without having to say anything in front of Clarke. To her relief, he nodded, just as Finn, Wells, and Murphy ran up too, and soon all five of them had pulled Clarke out of the hole.

They all stood there for a moment, catching their breath. Clarke looked over at Rachel, and simply said, "Thanks."

Rachel nodded back at the other girl, before turning her attention back to Jasper. "We have to get him down from there."

Finn stepped forward, "I'll climb up and cut the vines. You," he jerked his chin at Murphy, "come with me."

As they carefully approached the tree, Rachel found herself near tears again as she looked at him. But her thoughts were interrupted by Clarke.

"There's a poultice on his wound." She pointed towards a spot on his chest that was patched with something gray.

"Medicine?" Rachel asked, squinting to try and see it better, "Why would they do that?"

Wells turned towards the girls, "They're using him as live bait."

"And whatever they're trying to catch," Bellamy added, "likes its dinner breathing."

Finn turned away from the tree and towards the group, "maybe what they're trying to catch is us."

"Oh my God," Rachel said again, covering her face with her hands and wiping away her tears.

"Get him down quick." Clarke commanded. Finn nodded, and swiftly scaled the tree until he was level with Jasper. He had Murphy toss up his knife, and even though he was rescuing her friend, Rachel found herself slightly disappointed when he didn't cut himself catching it.

He had only cut his way through a few of the ropes when they heard the growl.

Murphy nearly lost his footing on the tree, "What the hell was that?"

"Grounders?" Bellamy whirled around, gun drawn, trying to find whatever had made the noise.

"Bellamy." Rachel whispered, drawing his attention.

She was staring directly at a huge, black cat across the clearing. It moved smoothly, and thankfully slowly towards her for a moment, before pouncing forward full speed.

She ran towards the tree, narrowly avoiding the put, just as Wells ran away from the tree. In his arms, he held a huge, fallen branch, at least a foot around. He planted himself in front of her and Clarke, and when the cat was only a few feet away, he swung with all his might.

The cat whirled back, slightly off balance from the strike, but now so much angrier. Rachel closed her eyes, not wanting to see what came next. She heard it howl and start towards them again, but it's growl was interrupted two shots rang out, then everything fell silent.

When she opened her eyes, she saw Bellamy holding his gun in front of him, the end smoking. He was breathing heavily, and his eyes were wide. Cautiously, she approached him and followed his gaze. The cat lay dead only a few feet in front of him. One bullet wound was in his head, and the other had torn off his paw.

Amazed, he laughed at the sight. "Pretty good shot." She complimented Bellamy, not taking her eyes off of the creature.

She heard him laugh too as he came up next to her, "only 'pretty good?'"

"Well," she mused, "you were dishonorable discharged before you could complete firearms training. So I wasn't exactly expecting a bulls-eye."

He gave her a mock-insulted look. "Okay, next time you shoot the terrifying monster."

"With pleasure."

They laughed for a minute, then remembered why they were there. Turning back to the tree, Rachel saw Finn cut through the last of the ropes holding Jasper to the tree, and gently lower him into Wells and Murphy's arms.

"He's alive, Rachel." Bellamy gently reminded her, placing a hand on her shoulder in an attempt at comfort.

"I know," she said, "But how are we gonna keep him that way?"