"Bellamy!" Lina cried out in a strangled voice as her stomach heaved again. He was at her side just in time to watch the last bit of blood drip from her mouth. His dark eyes widened in horror and for a moment he seemed frozen in place. Then suddenly, he was in motion.

His big arms slid around her, one under her knees the other around her back. The pressure of his arm on her burns stung, but she didn't complain. Bellamy lifted her off the bed at the same time she threw her arms around his neck to keep herself steady. Lina kept her eyes shut and clung to him as he ran to the medical station. Her tears soaked through his thick sweater when they spilled out uncontrollably.

What was happening to her? Abby had said the meds could cause vomiting, but Lina was sure this wasn't what she had been talking about. Her insides felt as though they were on fire while at the same time goosebumps covered her flesh. Every sound echoed loudly in her head and caused a searing headache. She pressed her forehead to Bellamy's shoulder, hoping it would staunch the pain. Each long step he took made her stomach bounce around inside her and threatened to send more blood spewing from her mouth.

When Bellamy burst through the doors of the medical center Lina opened her eyes just enough to see that all twenty or so people had snapped their head towards the door. Some eyes narrowed in suspicion and dislike, and others grew large with horror and curiosity.

"Abby!" Bellamy called; Lina heard the sound vibrate in his chest. The doctor pushed her way through the crowd. She took a long look at Lina, then shifted her eyes to the young man carrying her.

"Put her on an open bed," Abby's hand gestured to a corner filled with cots, most of which were already occupied. "I'll get to her as soon as I'm…"

"No. Now Abby." Bellamy cut her off in a hoarse and irritated voice. But Abby was shaking her head.

"Bellamy, look at all these people!" she spread her arms out at her sides. "I will get to her as soon as I can, but I can't just drop my other patients." Despite Bellamy's shouts of protest, Abby kept her voice calm and controlled. "Let me finish up with that young boy over there, and then I'll come take a look." She finally compromised. Bellamy stomped through the throng of people towards a vacant bed in the far corner of the room. Rather than laying Lina down, he sat, keeping her against his chest. The action made her feel like a small child, but she didn't have the energy to be annoyed. Instead, she rested her head on his chest and listened to his rapid heartbeats. His arms now snaked their way around her middle, keeping her tightly pressed to him.

"Abby's going to help." his head bent down so that his whispered flowed directly into her ear. "You're gonna be okay." He repeated those words until the doctor finally came for them. Bellamy carried Lina behind a curtain and carefully placed her on the metal table. As he turned to leave on Abby's instructions, something compelled Lina to reach out and grab the hem of his shirt. She had a gnawing feeling that if he left her, she wouldn't be able to hold herself together. She felt like a cracked piece of glass that was ready to crumble at any moment into thousands of tiny shards, and Bellamy was the only thing keeping her whole. Lina couldn't explain what made her think like that. Perhaps it was because she had absolutely no one left in the world to hold onto. Everyone who could ever care about her wellbeing was gone, and all she was left with was Bellamy Blake.

Her thoughts sounded pathetic, even to herself. But to her astonishment, Bellamy took a hold of her hand, weaving his fingers in with hers. He stayed by her side while Abby examined her. She listened to her heart, checked her temperature, drew some blood, looked in her throat, and did a million other things that doctors do when they're unsure of why someone is ill. In the end, Abby gave Bellamy a serious look and jerked her head back, signaling him to go with her. Once the two stepped behind the curtain, all Lina could hear were their hushed and urgent murmurs.

When the screen was pushed aside again, Abby appeared alone. Her face was full of pity and the sight of it made Lina feel even worse. She hated being pitied. When the doctor finally spoke, Lina was prepared to hear the worst.

"I was wrong." Abby cast her eyes to the floor in shame and continued after a short pause. "While your body is able to filter the radiation out of your blood streams more efficiently than any of the others' in Mount Weather, it isn't working fast enough. The radiation is slowly seeping into your body and you can't fight it off." Lina processed the new information for a few minutes while Abby waited patiently.

"So, I'm dying." She finally concluded. Strangely, the realization didn't frighten her. It was almost as though she had expected this all along and it was somehow comforting that she no longer had to wait for it to happen.

"If we don't take action, yes you will die." Lina liked the way Abby didn't sugar coat things. "However, Jasper told me that while he was in the mountain, your doctor ran a sick girl's blood through his system. It filtered out radiation and she lived."

Lina's mind flashed to images of Maya. She remembered hearing that her friend had been saved by using the Sky People's blood. She should have guessed that it had been Jasper to volunteer for such a risky experiment. Her eyes met Abby's.

"I can't let anyone risk their life for me like that." Her voice was strong and filled with conviction. She wouldn't let it happen. Besides, she was sure that no one would volunteer to save the life of a Mountain Girl. They all hated her as it was, why would they help her?

"It's not as risky as it sounds." Abby looked down at Lina on the metal table. "And it would buy us more time to figure out a permanent solution."

"It's not permanent?" Lina tried her luck at sitting up, but fell back onto her elbows.

"Well, no." Abby took a deep breath. "Presumably, your body will accept the new blood for a few days, maybe even a week. But eventually, the radiation will work its' way back in." Lina was shaking her head and Abby raised her voice. "It's possible that after a few treatments your body will figure out how to do the work on its own!"

"No." Lina protested adamantly. Abby pressed her lips together to form a straight line. She was visibly annoyed at Lina's stubbornness, but she did not argue.

That's when Lina should have realized something was wrong. From what she had been told, Abby Griffin was a force to be reckoned with. Even Bellamy had been worried about pissing her off. The fact that the doctor had simply given up on an argument should have made Lina skeptical. But her body was too weak to notice and sleep dragged her into oblivion.

A sharp pinch on her forearm woke her abruptly sometime later. Her eyes trained in on her arm as a long needle was being pulled from the flesh. She looked up to find Abby standing over her. She yanked her arm from the doctor's grip, but it was too late. Whatever she'd been injected with was already working its way through her veins.

"What the hell are you doing?" Lina half yelled at the woman. Abby shook her head and stayed silent as Lina felt her body begin to drift back to sleep. She fought against the drowsiness but her eyelids had become like steel doors. They fell together at an agonizingly slow pace. She was still shaking her head in objection when her world went dark.