CHAPTER 2

He ran straight to her and grabbed her into a tight hug.

"I thought you were dead," he said, his voice muffled in her hair. Raven gently extricated herself so she could look into his face, pushing him onto the edge of her bed, holding one of his hands with her other hand against his cheek. Her heart dropped as she looked at the cuts, burns and bruises that covered him.

"Finn, I'm okay, we're both okay."

Finn's whole body shuddered as he tried to talk to her through his tears.

"So many people died, Raven. So many people. I killed people ..." the tears drowned his voice as he sobbed uncontrollably. Raven pulled him back into her and held him as he cried.

20 minutes later the tears had gone but it was obvious to Raven that Finn was a broken man. The earth had been his brave new world and he had done everything he could to lead others towards his vision of a fresh start, with freedom for all in a peaceful community. The battle had marked the total failure of all his dreams and he could see no way to move on, or any hope at all in getting their lost people back. Raven let him cry but when Abby came in to check on them she persuaded him he needed to sleep and a quick shared glance with Abby had conveyed to the doctor that maybe some pharmaceutical help would be needed.

Raven's heart was heavy as she thought about Finn. She mourned for the loss of the carefree, optimistic boy she has known, sensing that he was gone forever. They had been everything to each other for so long but a few short days on earth had changed everything. She had been so bitter when she found out about Clarke and determined that she would fight for the relationship and make it what it had been. She'd soon discovered that nothing on earth would ever be like the Ark. Finn needed something different so she had let him go. It had been painful, like cutting off a limb, but somewhere in the process she had realised that maybe she needed something different too. Something more. Holding a crying Finn in her arms, she had felt overwhelming love for him and a desperate need to make things better but it had been an oddly maternal feeling, as if he was a small boy who needed her to take away the pain. She knew she would still do anything in the world if it could ease his suffering but he wasn't her lover anymore and it would take a different kind of guy to share her path.

And then, Bellamy walked through the door.