Sorry for the delay... again. But on a good note, I finally got my computer fixed so my updates should be more regular from now on! Not a whole lot is going on in this chapter but I felt like it was necessary for the relationship between Lina and Bell.

Chapter 20

After an hour or so, Octavia's hair braiding had turned into game playing. The girl's had found a few pieces of scrap paper and began scratching tic-tac-toe boards across the surfaces. It was during their fourteenth game that Bellamy finally made his way back to them. The girl's, all three of whom now sported fierce braids like Octavia and Lina, jumped to their feet at his presence. They instantly began to show off their new hair and winning game boards. Bellamy smiled and cheered their wins like a big brother would do. Perhaps that's why the girls were so drawn to him, because he was the only one of their people to ever play the role of the brother, the protector.

"What were they talking about?" Octavia asked when the girls had finally scampered away.

"Kane is worried that if Abby's right and all that shit is infested with some kind of disease, that it will leave the camp vulnerable to an attack. There's a good chunk of the Guard in this room."

"I'm telling you Bell, there's nothing wrong with the supplies." Octavia insisted. Her brother put his hands up in a show of innocence.

"Trust me, I believe Lincoln as much as you do." He shrugged his large shoulders. "But prepare for the worst, hope for the best." Octavia nodded, finally agreeing.

Lina tore her eyes away from the siblings. There were a lot of questions she wanted to ask, mainly about Bellamy's role in the massacre of her people, but she was too afraid to outright ask any of them, especially when she would be stuck in the same room as him for another day. Instead she let her mind wander and her eyes flow over the room. She settled them on Kane and Abby, who had claimed the corner at the end of the wall she rested against. The doctor was rushing words out of her mouth, although they were too far to be heard. Lina's lips twitched into a quick smile when Kane put a gentle hand on Abby's knee, shushing for her calm down. She had noticed the relationship between the doctor and Chancellor was more than friendly in her first few hours in Camp Jaha. She wondered how many others saw it too. Abby looked as though she were about to jump out of her skin. No doubt being stuck in this room not being able to work was taking a toll on her.

Another thought hit Lina like a brick wall.

If Abby was here for the next twenty four hours, that meant she wasn't working on a cure. Lina had never had much hope for surviving the crazy and beautiful world above ground, but Bellamy's faith had given her the slightest bit of confidence. Now, that hope was washing from her body, swirling in circles around her toes before pouring down the imaginary drain for good.

Her disappointment must have shown on her face because when she returned her gaze to the Blake's, both were staring at her. Bellamy's hand made a small movement, as though he were about to reach out for her, but it stilled in his lap an instant later.

"Abby's stuck in here for a full day." Lina forced a smile onto her lips. Octavia furrowed her brows, not understanding the significance of the statement. Bellamy on the other hand, kept his eyes trained on Lina.

"You have to give her more time." He was almost pleading. Lina shook her head.

"We had an agreement. I gave you two days, after that I get to do what I want. I get to choose how I spend my final hours and I sure as hell don't want to be prodded with needles or eye-murdered by Robert." Bellamy whipped his head around to find that Robert was in fact, staring daggers into Lina's skull.

"Lina, Abby can do this." He leaned his body forward, his knees now tapping against her own. "She just told me that she has some test running as we speak! Trust me. We can…"

"I don't want to die in here." She said exasperated, earning her a few strange looks from those nearby. "I should have died with the people I loved, the people who loved me. Not in this camp where no one gives a shit about the life of a Mountain Man." She spit the last two words out like venom. It made her sick to think that the Mountain Men were the main actors in the nightmares of children on the surface. It made her even sicker to categorize herself as one of the Monsters.

"Are you kidding me?" Bellamy looked offended by her small rant. "You don't think that people in this camp care about you? Why do you think Octavia brought you out of the mountain in the first place? Why do you think Kane laid for hours with your blood circulating through his system? Why have I let you sleep in my tent? In my bed?" Lina's face went red as he said the words. Octavia's jaw nearly hit the floor at the confession. "I don't know how you did things below ground. Hell, I don't even know how things are done on the Ground, but up there," he pointed towards the sky. "all of those things are acts of friendship, of compassion, of… of humanity. I've learned that all life matters on Earth. We didn't want to kill your people Lina. That's the fucking last thing we wanted, but it was the only option we had left. So if I have even the slightest opportunity to make it up to you; to make up for ripping your life apart, then I'm going to do whatever it takes."

BELLAMY

His head was swimming at her accusation. How could she not see how much he cared? He had chased her through the God dammed woods, he'd put a knife to the neck of one of his own people in her defense, he'd held her so close that he could feel her heart beating in sync with his. When he was done talking, his hands were shaking and he was very aware of the looks he was receiving from the people who were close enough to hear.

"Uh, I'm gonna go… check on the girls." Octavia said uncomfortably. She rose to her feet and turned to leave but not before casting her brother a stern look. Her eyes moved quickly from him to Lina. He understood what she meant. They had always been able to communicate with little to no words. She was warning him to apologize, and he feared for his safety if he didn't listen. Octavia had a way of weakening Bellamy, of effortlessly bending him to her will. He felt a strange responsibility to do as she said, to please her, to make her proud. The bond between siblings was something that no one else could ever understand, because no one else had a big brother or a little sister.

That's not entirely true. He thought to himself as Lina shifted beside him.

He wanted to say something. He wanted to break the awful silence that had fallen between them. But what? Lina was clearly upset by what he had said, and he sure as hell wasn't going to apologize for speaking the truth. So what was left to discuss? He decided to go with something neutral, something that couldn't possibly trigger another outburst from either of them.

"It's pretty hot with all these people in here." he shrugged out of his jacket for added emphasis. She rolled her head towards him, letting her impossibly dark eyes connect with his only briefly.

"Why did you do that?" she asked quietly. He opened his mouth to speak, but couldn't find the right words fast enough. Her head turned away again to look at something, anything, other than him. The people around them who had all been listening in before had now gone back to their own private conversations. Just in case there was a straggler eavesdropper or two, Bellamy leaned in to make sure they weren't overheard this time.

"I'm sorry if I embarrassed you, but it's the truth." she still didn't look at him. "I know you're heartbroken and you feel guilty and exhausted, but I can't sit back and watch you die."

"You think you know how I feel?" finally her head snapped towards him. "My father and baby sister died right in front of me, and all I could do was 'sit back and watch them die.'" she said slowly, throwing his own words back in his face. "How could you possibly know what that feels like?"

"Because I've been there too." he did his best to keep his voice flat and subdued. "My mom was 's what happened to criminals on the Ark, they get released into space." he explained when she gave him a blank look. He knew what happened when someone was launched into space without a suit. He knew that his mother most likely was unconscious in the first fifteen seconds due to a lack of oxygen. He also knew that her body would bloat to about twice its normal size, her skin stretching like a balloon. She'd also start to burn, slowly, from the unobstructed UV rays. He pushed the thoughts away and focused on the girl in front of him again. Her eyes had softened but her lips were still pressed into a firm thin line.

"What was her crime?" she asked, almost hesitantly, as though she were afraid to hear the answer. But something told him she already knew.

"Having a second child." His gazed flickered to his sister in the middle of the room. Lina nodded but said nothing.

Good, he thought. He didn't want her pity. Another silence settled around them, this one a bit more comfortable than the last. He wanted to tell her that Abby was almost certain that she could replicate the bone marrow transplant that would save Lina's life. He wanted to tell her that he would gladly be the one to donate. Hell, he would give his life if it atoned for his sins. He would give his life if it saved hers. There was a lot he wanted to tell her, but he decided that pushing the topic now would only elicit more arguments.

Instead he would let it rest; he would let her rest. Lina peered over at him a few times during their long stretch of silence, each time her lips quivered like she was on the verge of forming words. But each time, her turned away before she spoke a single word.

Bellamy let the silence linger, unsure of how to break it. He watched as she leaned forward and pulled her arms free from the heavy jacket she wore. The temperature in the small room seemed to have skyrocketed in the last hour or so. All these people packed into a confined area, each giving off their own body heat, it was bound to be a sauna by time they were cleared to rejoin the rest of the camp.

It was two hours later that Jackson came pounding on the door calling for Kane. Octavia had returned to them so Bellamy felt no hesitation in leaving Lina to hear what was going on. He ran up beside Kane who was, as always, flanked by Abby.

"Lincoln's back." Jackson said through the glass of the door's window. He had run all the way from medical to give the news before anyone else discovered it. "And he's not alone."

"He brought her here?" Kane asked. His voice was calm, but Bellamy could see the apprehension on his face. If the camp found out that Lexa was here chaos would ensue. People would raise their weapons and voices against her.

"Yes, and," Jackson took a deep breath and looked to Abby. "he brought Clarke."