Happy Murphiley Monday!
This chapter is kind of short, but hot damn is it important. The next chapter is Survival Of the Fittest, AKA Daddy Jaha takes the kids on an awkward day trip to his son's grave. Super fun, right? RIGHT. That chapter will be out on Friday. I will be posting a sneak preview of this chapter on the tumblr I made for this story. Link is in my profile, or search rileyparkerneedstoshutup on tumblr.
Right after Clarke went to see Lincoln and Breton, they had finally let Breton walk around freely. Breton and June had found Murphy and I still hugging it out. I immediately knew it was her when I felt someone wrap their arms around both of us.
"Join in, Breton." June whispered, motioning towards him. I didn't need to see him to know this whole situation was making him uncomfortable. But if there was one thing I knew about him, it was that he'd do anything for June.
Murphy had wished he wouldn't, however. When I felt more arms come around us, Murphy tensed, letting out a deep exhale in annoyance. I doubt he wanted Breton anywhere near touching him, let alone me.
"Okay, we're done here." I said as I tried to push myself away from Murphy, to get everyone off of us. I wasn't going to subject Murphy that for too long.
June laughed and stepped away, Breton walking around Murphy and I to stand next to her.
"This must be really hard for you. I'm sorry." Breton said in that deep baritone, looking from Murphy to myself.
"Thanks, Breton." I said, nodding at him.
"Blood must have blood." June mumbled as she looked up in the air.
"I'm sorry, what?" I fumbled, looking from June to Breton. I was starting to think maybe she was crazy, or something.
"Jus drein jus daun, what they are saying." June said as her eyes fell from the sky back to me. "It means blood must have blood."
"Juice?" Murphy whispered to me, and I looked at him for a moment before shrugging.
"They won't attack tonight." Breton said confidently as he looked around us at the trees. "We should all rest. Tomorrow holds no garentees."
I frowned at Breton, a lump growing in my chest. I wasn't quite sure how I was supposed to sleep after hearing him say that, but Murphy wrapped his arm around my shoulders and led us back to our room anyways.
As we took off our boots together, I could feel myself shaking. I could still faintly hear them chanting outside, and I kind of wanted to cry. 'Tomorrow holds no garentees'
I could feel myself being brought back into my memories, to when I had been in their camp. Hearing Jasper's screams as they sliced me up. It was like I was suddenly reliving it.
"Hey." Murphy said as he turned off the light and grabbed my hand, leading me towards the bed. "Just like when we were kids, right?" He said as he laid down on the bed, pulling me down with him. He wrapped his arms around me tightly, and as I turned my body to the side to sleep, his body followed mine. His whole body enveloped around mine as I nearly curled up into a ball. "We are going to be okay, Riley." He murmured at he brushed the hair away from my face, giving me a quick kiss on the temple. "We're going to be okay." He repeated as he laid his head down behind mine.
I wasn't sure if he was trying to reassure me or himself at that point, but I was so glad he kept talking. Hearing him repeat that we were going to be okay made me feel like maybe, just maybe, we would be okay. I tried to stay in that moment as long as I could. To try to remember his body pressed against mine and his strong arms around me. That night I had no clue what the next day would bring, and I wanted to remember that moment forever.
To have someone care enough about you even to talk you to sleep. It was something I had taken for granite as a kid. I had thought all my problems on the ark were huge. I thought not eating enough, and having a dad who wanted to kick me more than hug me was life or death. In retrospect, my childhood was full of life or death situations. But I never really had to face them alone, and that makes all the difference in the world. I knew as I drifted off to sleep that night that if Murphy hadn't existed, I would've lost my mind years ago. He kept me sane, and that's something worth fighting for.
We woke up the next day to a pounding on our door. Neither one of us wanted to leave the comfort of the bed, but after five minutes of consistent knocking, Murphy groaned and took his arms away from me, crawling over me and jumping out of bed. He opened the door as I sat up in bed, trying to see who it was.
"This better be fucking good, Raven." Murphy hissed as he opened the door to let her through.
Talk about awkward moments with Raven. She gave our beds one look, and I could just tell she knew we had slept in the same bed last night.
"Cozy room." Raven mumbled as she turned around, looking at every corner.
"Yeah it's like living in a mansion." I said sarcastically, throwing the covers off my legs and placing them on the floor. "I hope you did wake us up to talk about decorating."
"No, I didn't." Raven admitted, shaking her head. "We need the man power at the dropship. We are going to try to hide Finn there until we can figure it all out. The grounders had left sometime last night, so now is our only chance." Raven quickly spat out, looking at Murphy.
"Yeah, we'll meet you there in a couple hours." Murphy grunted before he yawned and started to stretch.
"We?" Raven asked, looking from Murphy to myself.
"Two for one deal, Raven." I said, shrugging. There was no way in hell I was going to let Murphy skip off into the woods without me.
She rolled her eyes, seemingly upset about it. "Yeah, that's how Finn and I were." She mumbled as she stalked out of the open door, leaving us.
Hearing her say that made me feel immensely sorry for her. The way she had looked at Murphy and I all those times suddenly made sense. Finn had been her best friend.
The guilt for her was what made me agree to go. I had considered not, and thought about finding a way to make Murphy stay, (Which honestly wouldn't have been that hard) but instead I groaned and put on my boots. Murphy mimicked my actions, and within the hour we were sneaking out the back gate and heading to the dropship.
Unease spread through me the whole walk to the dropship. Call me skeptical, but I couldn't really imagine Raven wanting us there. I couldn't really imagine any of them wanting us there, actually.
"I have a bad feeling about this." I mumbled as we made our way through our old camp's gate. It was so quiet through the woods, and it spooked me out even more.
"You always do." Murphy replied, his gun ready for anything.
"And I'm almost always right." I said, which brought a smile to his face. He walked into the dropship before me, opening the curtains carefully.
"Hey, hey!" He said nervously as he faced Bellamy who had his gun drawn at us. Murphy lifted his hands and remained standing right in front of me.
"Murphy? Riley?" Bellamy asked, which honestly was quite dumb. Who else had our faces? "What are you two doing here?" Bellamy asked as he slowly lowered his gun.
"I believe we were invited." Murphy said as he nodded his head slightly towards Raven.
"You mean you were invited." I mumbled, looking around from Murphy to Raven.
"Two for one deal, Rhy." Murphy hissed back, glancing at me out of the corner of his eyes as he dropped his hands and let me pass him. I quickly took a few steps away, aiming my body to look at all three of them.
"I thought we could use an extra gun." Raven said shrugging at Bellamy.
Bellamy sighed for a moment before looking from Murphy to myself one more time. "Might be a good idea."
"Finn should've been right behind you." Raven stammered as she looked at both of us, hoping we knew where he was.
"Don't worry, the spacewalker's gonna be fine." Murphy retorted, walking away from the curtain and closer to me, in the middle of the dropship.
As if on queue, the curtain flew open and Finn burst in carrying Clarke. My eyes grew wide as I saw the blood dripping from her head. Knowing from personal experience, head injuries sucked.
"What happened?" Bellamy asked as Finn started to lay Clarke down.
"A grounder hit her in the head." Finn stammered, his hands about to fly up to her head. "I need a bandage, a wrap, anything." Finn continued.
"Only damn thing I'm going to be good for." I whispered to myself as I ran across the room and snatched a rag, heading quickly back over to where Clarke was laid down.
"Hold her head." Bellamy said as I dropped down to Clarke, letting Bellamy put her head on my lap. "Clarke, can you hear me?" Bellamy asked, bringing his head close to hers. She let out an audible groan. "Just rest." Bellamy whispered to her, and my attention was taken away from Clarke for a moment as Finn stormed back out of the dropship, Raven at his heels.
It took them a while to come back into the dropship, and once they did, Raven demanded to take over babying Clarke. I was more than happy to oblige, and gently put Clarke's head on the floor, giving Raven the rag. Bellamy motioned for Murphy to follow him outside, and as Bellamy headed out, Murphy nodded for me to follow.
Once outside, I got the pleasure of standing awkwardly next to Bellamy and Murphy as they both looked around, guns at the ready. Within minutes, Bellamy had spotted a grounder running through the woods, and told us to take cover behind a large overturned tree stump. Bellamy himself hid behind the other stump, and suddenly I was having major deja vu. They both were looking through their viewfinders, and I was just stuck in the middle.
"Why doesn't anyone ever give me a gun? I could be helpful." I mumbled as I sat down completely next to Murphy. I wasn't going to be able to safely peek my head out without a viewfinder.
"You don't know the first thing about guns." Murphy said, sighing. "Besides, you already stick your neck out too far for people. I can't have you wielding a gun. You'd get yourself shot."
It took a moment for me to respond. "That's rude." I whispered, and he turned his head to look at me for a moment, brow raised. "I didn't say it wasn't true." I added, and he smirked before going back to looking in the viewfinder.
"Retreat!" Bellamy yelled to us, and Murphy took no time in yanking me up with him, carefully holding the gun as we ran inside, ready to shoot.
Raven and Finn seemed surprised by us coming inside, but neither said a word to us. There was silence outside, and I found myself sitting down near Raven and Clarke, waiting for anything.
Hesitantly both Bellamy and Murphy stuck their heads out, trying to see what was going on. Murphy nearly ducked out of the dropship completely, which made me beyond uneasy.
"They are not moving any closer." Murphy said to Bellamy.
"Stop sticking your whole body out the freaking door." I yelled to him, and he quickly pulled himself back in to glare at me for a moment, before looking over at Bellamy. Bellamy had pulled his head back in as well.
"They are staying out of range. They'll be waiting until its dark." Bellamy grumbled, looking down at Clarke as she woke up.
"If we hit them now, we take them by surprise." Murphy suggested, and I groaned. The last thing I wanted them to do was attack.
"We don't even know how many of them are out there." Clarke finally pipped up, sitting up and rubbing her head.
Raven, Finn and I stood up as Clarke did, and Murphy made his way closer to me.
"I'm not hearing any better ideas, Clarke." Murphy spat, standing right next to me and looking at her.
"We'll give them something." Raven said, and I looked at her confused.
"A piece of our mind?" I suggested as I took a step away from her and one closer to Murphy.
"All they want is Finn." Bellamy reminded her. All eyes were trained on Raven now, waiting for her to tell us her brilliant plan. And what she said next shook my world apart.
"Finn wasn't the only one at the village." Raven spat as she looked over at me and Murphy.
I could feel my stomach dropping, and if I had eaten more that morning I definitely would've vomited.
"What are you talking about?" Clarke asked, her eyes widening at what Raven was hinting at.
"Raven, hold on." Bellamy added, and my mind went into overdrive.
"Oh, hell no." I hissed as I made sure I was blocking Raven from getting anywhere near Murphy.
"Raven, I came here to protect him." Murphy said offendedly, "You were the one who wanted me to come. You." Murphy stopped speaking, realizing that it must've been her plan all along. "That's why you asked only me to come along?" Murphy asked, but he didn't need Raven to answer to know it was true.
"Enough grounders saw him. They'd believe he was the shooter." Raven spat, looking from Clarke to Bellamy.
"You, You." I fumbled over my words, backing myself into Murphy to make even more distance between Raven and him. I could feel his chest against my back. "I can't. Why? No." Words came spewing out of my mouth as I kept my eyes on her, so scared that if I looked away from her for just one moment she might just somehow snatch Murphy away. I had never before wanted to hurt someone as badly as I did when Raven suggested that.
"You sick bitch." Murphy hissed from behind me.
"Raven, you don't mean this." Clarke tried to reason, but even Clarke knew she did mean it.
"You know what they do to people." Bellamy added, but all Raven did was shake her head while she kept her eyes on Murphy.
"They want a murderer, we'll give them one." Raven replied, taking a step closer to us.
"No!" I could hardly use my voice muscles anymore, and my whole body tensed up. "Over my dead body." I finally was able to choke out, and let me tell you. If looks could kill, Raven would've been so dead.
"Go to hell, Raven." Murphy spat back from behind me as Raven raised her gun, and I took another step back into him, trying to stay as close to him as possible while also keeping my eyes on Raven, and blocking her aim.
"I trusted you." I yelled.
"Like it or not, he's one of us." Clarke said as she took a step closer to Raven.
"Riley, move out of the way." Raven hissed instead of even looking at Clarke.
"Go float yourself, Raven." I choked back. I couldn't, I just didn't know what to do. I wanted to scream. I wanted to tear her eyes out, anything. I really wanted to tear her eyes out, actually. Just so she could stop looking at us like that.
"Stop, stop!" Finn finally yelled as he quickly walked up to Raven and snatched the gun away from her. "We're not doing this." Finn said as he waved Raven's gun. "They have got us surrounded, all we can do is stay and defend the place."
"I'm with you." Bellamy stepped closer to Finn nodding.
"Murphy, Riley?" Finn asked as he looked hesitantly over at us. I must've looked like a freaking train wreck. I could feel myself shaking, which always happened when I got too stressed. And let me tell you, Raven threatening Murphy's life was extremely stressful.
"Yeah?" Murphy replied.
"Go upstairs and watch the rear. I'll take the lower level. You three, take the front gate." Finn said, pointing at us all at different moments. "That's the plan, alright?" Finn asked as he kept his eyes on Raven.
I felt like it would take a mountain to move me, every muscle in my body felt heavy. But all it took was Murphy's hand on my shoulder. I hesitantly turned towards Murphy, worried to take my eyes off Raven, and motioned for Murphy to go up the stairs first. I had always gone first, but I just couldn't stomach him being alone with them, not even for the second it would take to climb up the stairs.
Once I got up the stairs, I could feel my whole body shaking again and Murphy lifted me up to him. I closed the hatch door with my foot as Murphy dragged me away from it. "It's okay, Riley." He said, looking at me with concern filling his eyes.
"I thought." I stammered, my free hand shaking as I tried to bring it to him. "I thought they were going to take my best friend away from me. And give you to the grounders. Again."
Murphy let out a deep sigh as he grabbed my shaking hand and pulled me closer to him, kissing the top of my head as he pulled me closer.
"Well, now you know how I felt at that cliff." Murphy stated dryly.
"We can't trust them anymore, Murphy. I don't care what Clarke said, we can't." I said into his chest as I rested my head against it, trying to pull myself together.
"I know that now." Murphy mumbled as his hands dropped mine and he wrapped his arms around me. After a moment he brought his head down closer to mine, "Thank you." He whispered.
I pulled away slightly to look into his eyes as I asked, "For what?"
Murphy sighed, looking away from me for a moment before responding. "For being you, I guess." He mumbled, "For sticking up for me. For being about five seconds away from ripping Raven a new one."
"You're my best friend, Murphy." I said. "I will always be five seconds away from ripping a new one on anyone who tries to take you out of my life."
Murphy smiled, his lips finding mine after he whispered, "Good."