Raven was feeling pretty proud of herself. It had taken two full days of work, but she had finally gotten the old transmitter hooked up to the drop ship radio system. With the makeshift antenna and just enough juice from the generators, the radio signal should be able to reach the Ark. Or so she hoped. Seeing 300 souls return to the earth was not something she wanted to experience twice.

Luckily, Finn had been able to help her find all the replacement parts she had needed. Raven's smile died on her lips. He had also found himself another girl.

She didn't realize anything was wrong at first. But then she started noticing little things: the way he hesitated to show affection, that too serious look that would pass over him at odd times. It was the little figurine of a two headed deer tucked away in a place only he and Clarke knew about. And it was the way his eyes wouldn't meet hers after she found it. He didn't confess, not in words, but Raven knew. Taken separately it wouldn't have meant much to her. But after her visit to the bunker she had started putting each event together in her mind.

Then Clarke had come to check on the progress with the radio. Raven didn't want to even acknowledge the other girls presence while all those troublesome thoughts were swirling through her head. But clearly refusing to be ignored is a Griffin family trait

Confronting Clarke had been an accident but the girl had kept asking if something was wrong so Raven let her have it. Clark had no denials, just a rushed explanation. In the end it was worse than Raven had thought. Clarke said it was over and she hardly knew him. But Finn still had those moments of too serious looks and hesitant kisses.

Raven pulled back her hand sharply. Without thinking, she placed two bleeding fingers in her mouth.

She wasn't focusing again and had just scraped her knuckles against something sharp. Her mind was too full of how to confront Finn. So far, she had just been pretending that everything was fine while trying to keep her distance. She busied herself with the radio and didn't complain when Finn took off for long hours into the woods. She had accepted his offer help by sending to the roof to fix the solar panels with Monty.

Maybe when Clarke comes to talk about the radio, she can ask her to confront Finn. But how would she even go about asking such a thing?

'Will you tell my boyfriend I know you slept with him?'

"Tell who what?" Raven turned in shock, how long had Monty been standing there? He looked dirty, sweaty, and confused.

"Uh, can you tell Finn you kept up with him in putting the components together for the solar panels? We will need to hook those up now for the radio to have enough power."

Monty nodded and left. Raven sighed in relief, he bought that?

Finn and Monty had been working on opposite sides of the ship repairing solar panels. If they could get all of them running again the ship would have enough power for the radio and the other onboard systems again.

Raven heard Finn from a distance shout that they were ready and then moments later the whole drop ship lit up. Her eyes moved up and across the cabin as the monitors flickered on and air system fans began to spin. A smile of pure triumph split her face. "Now that's more like it!"

"Is this what you wanted to talk to me about?"

Once again Raven wasn't as alone as she thought. Clarke was standing in the doorway this time. She was looking appropriately impressed but her face was very pale and her cheeks were flushed.

"Yeah! But are you alright? You don't-"

"I'm fine!" Clarke rubbed the back of her right hand against the opposite check in a self conscious gesture. Had she been blushing?

"We fixed most of the solar panels and re-routed power from obsolete systems like navigation and the oxygen generator." Raven looked around in satisfaction. "Ready to try the radio?"

Clarke almost turned to go find Bellamy but decided his little stunt a moment ago just cost him some common courtesy.

Instead she felt the corner of her mouth move up into an almost smile. She narrowed her eyes at Raven "Let's do this."

Raven moved past Clarke to stick her head outside "Finn, Monty, time to move!"

By the time the boys made it inside the two girls were already at the radio controls.

"This is earth to Ark can you read me?" Raven waited at the com for a response and everyone held their breath.

Nothing. She tried again "Earth to the Ark, can you read me?"

A few more calls out and a few more breathless moments passed until finally: "Earth, this is the Ark. We read you loud and clear."

The person on the other line sounded genuinely surprised.

"We did it!" Monty breathed. The small group smiled and laughed in relief. Clarke gave Monty a hug and Finn squeezed Raven's shoulders in congratulations.

His arms almost reached out to hug Clarke but they just fell to his sides. He was unsure of how she would respond to even a simple hug. Clarke had been giving him no room for any form of physical affection. Finn had never felt so unsure of himself before.

Here he has his girlfriend, his family, right by his side. But somehow that wasn't enough anymore. He had tried to talk to Clarke about it, but she was so damn focused on everything else he-

"This is Councilman Kane, how is everyone?"

Finn's train of thought came crashing into the sound of the new voice on the radio.

Kane? Of all the people on the Ark why him? Finn felt Clarke's hand touch his arm. She looked concerned. He must have physically responded to hearing that man again.

Raven began to respond back to the question and suddenly he felt fearful at what she was going to say

"Everyone appears to be healthy-" Finn squeezed her shoulder and when Raven looked up at him he raised his eyebrows and shook his head. A warning not to say too much.

"That is good to hear, can we get a list of all survivors?"

Finn felt his entire body tense. Kane does not need to have that information. Clarke was still watching him closely so he just looked at her and shook his head again. Everyone just needs to stay quiet. Clarke narrowed her eyes at him then immediately moved to the radio and silently held out her hand for Raven to pass the com.

"We can tell you that there are 92 of the 100 alive and well. No symptoms of radiation poisoning." Her voice was clipped. She wasn't giving out too much information but her suspicions were on high alert. Finn decided he should move out of her direct line of sight and casually went to lean against the opposite wall.

"Excellent, that is good news. Once we have the list of names we can pass it along to the family members." The councilman seemed intent on getting the names, but his reasoning pushed against Clarke the wrong way.

"And what family members would that be? Most of us are from sector 17!"

A new voice came over the radio. "Clarke? This is the Chancellor." He paused for a moment but Clarke seemed too angry to respond. "We had to follow through with the population reduction. But, we let the people know what was happening. Your mother broadcasted your father's message. Clarke, everyone who died was a volunteer."

The shock of that statement rippled across the faces of the four teens.

Clarke allowed herself a small moment to for that news to settle and to prepare herself for the news she had to share. "I didn't want to tell you this way Chancellor, but it would be cruel to make you wait. Wells, he, was one of the ones who didn't make it."

Now the other side needed a moment of silence. The Chancellor's voice was shaky when he came back on the line. "The council will need to meet now that we know the earth is habitable, but we will be in touch again shortly."

The radio went silent and Clarke immediately turned to Finn. "How do you know Councilman Kane?"

Finn did not like being in Clarke's crosshairs. "Just because you are on a first name basis with the Council, doesn't mean the rest of us couldn't have met one of them too."

Clarke breathed out her nose and studied him very carefully. "No, it's more than that and you know it!"

Finn didn't like her suspicions being raised towards him. He was not sure how much he should share but had grown tired of the distance between the two of them. He would have to tell her just enough to remove suspicion. He could tell her the rest another time. "Kane found me in lock-up and told me about going to the earth. He asked me to keep an eye on you."

Clarke withdrew slightly. "In exchange for what?"

Finn glanced at raven "In exchange for Raven being on the next ship down."

Clarke's brows crumpled in thought. "But why would Kane want to protect me? And why you?"

Finn couldn't tell if that last question was really addressed to him but answered anyway. "He knew me from the space walk but other than that, I can't say for sure."

Clarke was staring at the ground as if it held all the answers she needed. Finn could practically see the gears turning in her head. She looked over her shoulder at the radio and her fists clenched at her sides. Clarke then gave Finn one last searching look before pressing her lips together and focusing her attention to the door.

No one was there. He was about to ask what it was but stopped as Clarke rolled her shoulders and began making determined strides towards it.

Twilight was encroaching upon the camp when Clarke stepped out of the ship. Kane wanting to help her only from the goodness of his heart seemed implausible. Someone on the Ark was trying to manipulate them, or worse sabotage the entire mission. They needed to be very careful what type of information went up and came down and there was only one person in camp who Clarke knew would want to enforce this. Her steps were determined, but her mind was still playing with the pros and cons of telling Bellamy everything she knew.

He wasn't outside like she had expected, he must be in his tent. Clarke stormed over to his home- her hand was already reaching out to raise the fabric. He might not be alone. Maybe she should wait? Her hand fell back to her side. No noise was coming from inside. A few kids nearby who had seen her march over were now giving her an odd look.

Clarke agreed that she looked pretty stupid just standing there. Plus, waiting sucks. Just spit out what you came to say and don't look around too much! Clarke made sure her shoulders were back and her head was held high before just stepping in.

"We should limit communication with the Ark." Clarke's mind quickly tumbled into a confused little mess. What happened to telling him the radio was fixed? What happened to his shirt? Why does it smell so nice in here?

Bellamy saw the challenging stance of her body but her eyes were unfocused and her little nose was moving in small arches. So she likes sage?

"Shouldn't that be easy without a radio? And what happened to knocking?" Bellamy made sure to sound more put out than he actually felt. Clarke looking so befuddled was rather amusing.

"Raven just got it working". She dismissed him easily and decided to test out a name on Bellamy. "Councilman Kane responded."

Bellamy looked nonplussed. "And?"

"And he asked Finn to look after me before we left" Clarke watched Bellamy closely for any signs of defensiveness. All she saw was slight irritation.

"I still don't see why that is significant?"

Clarke still hadn't finished fully weighing out the ramifications of going to Bellamy with this. But she was going to need him on her side if even part of her suspicions were true.

"Kane has no reason to look after me. He wasn't exactly close friends with my parents. There are also a dozen other people he could have asked to keep an eye out. But he chose Finn, a 4th level earth skills tracker to watch over the only other person headed down here who could read a topographical map".

Bellamy wasn't sure where Clarke was going with all this. Or why she needed to tell him. "Why is this so important that you have to barge in here?"

"We landed on the wrong mountain without any radio. What if Kane knew that was going to happen?"

That scenario didn't really make sense to him. "Then he wouldn't have made sure the only people who could figure that out found each other."

"He would if he wanted it to be easier to kill us. But maybe he just knew about it. He knew we were going to land off course, but let it happen so as not to alert who ever tampered with the ship. Someone sabotaged the mission as best they could, and he is trying to catch them. We need to limit contact with the Ark and find out if anyone else made some last minute visits."

Bellamy wondered when Clarke had become so insightful on political intrigue, was it a new trait or something she had used often back on the Ark? "I can ask around, but why limit communication?"

"Let me put it this way, who asked you to shoot the chancellor?'

Bellamy's chest rose and fell in a heavy sigh drawing Clarke's eyes downward.

"I get your point. And it was Commander Shuyman, not a council member. He came to me twenty minutes before the ship was set to leave. I wanted to shoot him, but I couldn't let them send her down all by herself."

Clarke re-focused her eyes onto Bellamy's face. "Shuyman picked you as someone he could manipulate. I'm sure you were not the only one either. He may have more people down here."

He didn't like that she basically just said he was easily manipulated, but it was true, he had been desperate. He looked out past her shoulder, staring at nothing. Members of the guard were in the perfect position to pressure underage detainees.

Clarke watched Bellamy's eyes go through a range of emotions. Anger, hurt, resentment but then they softened. He was going to support her on this; she could see it now in his relaxed posture. "Something is happening up there that we can't control. But we can limit their influence by carefully monitoring all communication."

He raised his arms wide in what he felt would seem both questioning and challenging. "You want guards for a radio?"

He didn't notice until just then that Clarke's eyes had drifted down over his exposed chest and as he raised his arms, her eyes followed down the length of one of them.

Had her eyes been hungry he would have puffed out his chest and flexed some muscles in smug confidence. Even the high and mighty Clarke couldn't resist him! Instead he reached for a shirt. The deep blue that was taking him in had a contemplative shade that made Bellamy feel as though she was seeing far more of him than he wanted to be seen. By the time he had finished dressing her eyes were back to his face and the steel was back to her posture.

"I don't want anyone talking to the Ark without us knowing about it. I don't trust anyone on the council right now, even my own mother"

Bellamy raised his eyebrows in question to this. But she shook her head in a tired sort of way that seemed to say it was a long story.

Bellamy had not fully made up his mind on where he stood with being able to communicate with the Ark, but when he saw that Clarke was intent on limiting contact he was more than ready to support her.

"Agreed."