Disclaimer: I do not own the 100

Raven hobbled around the small square space they were using as the temporary radio room, the hand that was not grasping her crutch sorting through a pile of spare parts, the ones that Wick and the rest of the engineers and mechanics had deemed useless and shoved in a supply closet. If catapulting to Earth in a hundred year old pod taught her anything, it was that down in Earth, there is no such thing as useless parts. You had to make do with what you had and think outside the conventional. But of course, to them she was just the poor crippled mechanic that (despite her kick-ass test scores and dedication) was probably admitted into Zero-G a little too early.

So they demoted her to listening in on Mount Weather—a job that, though important, anybody in the guard could do.

And yes, technically she was supposed to take it easy after the last few weeks. Finn's death was taking a big emotional toll on her, and after the Grounder's torture… Well, she'd definitely seen better days.

That pissed her off the most. The fact that she had finally regained some sort of independence with her stupid injury—she hadn't needed the crutches for a while—and then after last week, all the progress she had made was gone.

It was back to square one.

Finn was gone, and she felt helpless. That was a combination that brought her back to the years before she and Finn were friends. She remembered the loneliness, the emptiness, and that only made things worse. When things had started to get really bad as a kid, she found the boy next door to comfort her.

She was having a tough time coming to terms with the reality that the boy next door was never going to comfort her again.

She slammed a piece of scrap metal on the table out of frustration, a loud sigh escaping her.

Raven heard the curtain flip open, and she turned her head towards the sound. Murphy appeared in the doorway, holding two bowls, his gun slung across his back.

"Got you some grub, it looks a little thick but it's relatively warm." He walked over to her, standing across from her, the metal table in between them.

He handed her the bowl of food, if you could call it that, and Raven's nose instantly scrunched in distaste. If the off-white color was anything to go by, this wasn't going to taste too pleasant.

"What is this?" She lifted the spoon, watching as the oatmeal-like substance dripped back into the bowl in chunks.

"Lot's and lot's of protein." Murphy said shoveling a spoonful into his mouth "It's better than that green sludge we got for dinner the other night."

"What I wouldn't do for a piece of boar meat right now…" She let the spoon fall into the bowl and pushed it away from her.

Murphy sat in a tall stool in a corner of the room, watching as Raven sifted through what looked to him like a whole bunch of crap.

"What are you doing anyways? Aren't you supposed to be listening to Mount Weather?" He signaled with his head at the radio in the center table, next to where she had laid out the parts.

"I'm multi-tasking." She held up half of an old motor, chucking it behind her in an ever growing pile of more junk. "They put these parts in the supply closet of the tech room. I asked Wick if I could take them and he said yes."

"You should at least be sitting down. Abby told you to take it easy." He tossed aside his empty bowl of food and crossed his arms.

"This is me taking it easy, John." she rolled her eyes.

He looked at her for a long time, before shrugging his shoulders. He wasn't going to waste time arguing with her. He knew that even if he got her to sit down, she'd go back to doing whatever she wanted the minute he left the room. It was just who she was.

"Are you going to eat that?" He gestured to the bowl of food, which was probably already cold.

"Knock yourself out." She said as she tried to unscrew a bolt from an old contraption Murphy didn't recognize. She was using both of her hands to get a grip on the wrench and the part, her crutch being held by just her underarm.

Murphy saw her fall coming before she did.

Her grip on the crutch loosened slightly, and before she could regain her balance, she went tumbling down on the floor. He lunged to catch her, but he was on the other side of the table. He scrambled down to the floor as she rubbed her head, groaning.

"Raven, are you okay?" He looked her over for any signs of red blooming in her back, to see if she had reopened her wounds.

"I'm fine." She gritted her teeth, face contoured in obvious pain.

"C'mon let me help you."

"I'm fine." She repeated.

"A little help won't kill—" he started to grab her by the arms.

"I said I'm fine, Finn!" She snapped, mouth falling open after realizing what exactly she had just said.

She felt the hands on her arms slip away, and she looked at Murphy. His face was unreadable, stony as ever. He stood up slowly.

"John, I…" Her mouth bobbed open a few times, trying to find something to say.

Murphy just held his hands up and sucked in his lower lip, trapping it between his teeth as he shook his head.

"I didn't mean to… It just slipped out."

He just nodded, picking up his empty bowl from where he had left it.

"You're in a lot of pain. I get it."

She braced herself against the table and stood up, ignoring the sharp flash of pain that ran up her spine. She started to say something, but Murphy looked away, his hand lingering on the open curtain at the door.

"Look Raven. I know it still hurts, and at that moment I may have reacted like Finn would've," He saw her flinch at the mention of his name. "But I'm not Finn. I'm not going to coddle you and tell you everything is going to be okay because I'm not sure it will be. I'm not going to lie to you like that. I'm also not his replacement, and if in some twisted way in your brain you think I am, you better rewire yourself. You said it yourself, we're barely friends—Hell I fucking crippled you— you should know by now that I'm only going to destroy you."

He let the curtain fall after he walked through it.

"John!" She knelt as fast she could and grabbed her crutch.

She called his name again, hurriedly making her way to the doorway. Her back ached from the fall, but it was nothing serious. Right now she was more concerned about what Murphy had just said.

She saw him stalking away towards the front gate.

"Murphy!" She shouted, her voice carrying across the camp. A few people looked up and stared at her, but she didn't notice. Her gaze was fixed on the back of his head, and even though she knew he wouldn't turn around, she kept looking.

It was then that her ears caught the faintest familiar voice coming from the radio, and when she recognized it as Jasper's voice, she knew she'd have to put Murphy in the back of her mind for now.

Jasper's S.O.S message rang through the small room. Right now, she needed to get Clarke and Bellamy.

Hope you enjoyed it! Leave a review to let me know what you thought :)

.xoxo