CHAPTER 4

She listened to his footsteps walk away down the corridor before slumping back onto the pillows and scrubbing her hands over her face. She never cried, what the hell was going on. Must just be the shock from her injuries, or hormones or something. He was supposed to be the revenge fuck, the rebound guy. She hadn't broken up with one guy just to fall straight for another. And he was so different from Finn and what she had thought she wanted in a guy. He was difficult, bossy, violent, opinionated. Kind of like her really. She let her mind wander back to the night in his tent. At the time she had said it didn't help and she had been hurting too much over Finn to let anything else in. But she had found herself reliving the night and the things they had done. Her prior experience had been limited to Finn and it had certainly been interesting sleeping with another guy. She hadn't expected to enjoy it and maybe enjoy was the wrong word but it had definitely been ... satisfying. He certainly deserved his reputation amongst the ladies in camp. She had been surprised at how considerate he was in bed, making sure it wasn't all one-sided. But hey, sex was just sex and she had left his tent still sad. Maybe it was the question he asked as she left "did that help?" He knew it didn't and she knew it didn't but he had seemed to care. And earlier that day when she was planning on leaving, he stopped her, gave her the respect for her intelligence that Finn never did. Maybe it was because they were so similar but he saw right through her and he kind of liked the bad bits which Finn always pretended didn't exist. With Finn, Raven had always been the one to get things done, make the tough decisions; the strong one. Being with a guy as strong as her could lead to some almighty arguments but to know you could lean on them when you needed to, that could make it all worthwhile.

Raven was still turning these thoughts over as she drifted into sleep and dreams of a beautiful smile, and freckles and dark eyes as deep as forever.

When she woke the next morning, the rescue party had already left. Abby told her that 15 of them had set off, Bellamy, Finn, Kane and 12 guardsmen. All heavily armed and expecting a fight. Finn had been determined to accompany them and his tracking skills would prove valuable. Raven tried to push back her worries, knowing that it wouldn't help the situation any for her to get worked up. She was sensible enough to know that however frustrating it was to have to lie in bed, making sure she fully recovered was the most helpful thing she could do right now. But since it was kind of boring, lying around, she figured that a visitor or two could only be a good thing. And if those visitors happened to be other mechanics and engineers with whom she could trade knowledge then so much the better. She soon found herself inundated with requests for information about all things Earth related and found that her elders, for once, wanted her advice. Even so, the time seemed to drag with no word from the rescue party.

On the third day after the rescue party had left camp, Raven woke up on her stomach. It took her a second to realise that she had rolled over in her sleep because her legs had started working again. She immediately did some vigorous leg wriggling to test them out, followed by a fist pump and a "hell, yeah!" which brought Abby running to her room. Abby continued to caution her she needed to take things easy but conceded that muscle atrophy could be a problem if she didn't get her legs moving again. Raven took this as permission to get out of bed and out of the medbay. There was no news of Bellamy, Finn or the others so she continued to make herself useful wherever she could, fixing the many things that had broken during Mecha station's landing and identifying edible plants and good hunting spots. Bellamy's visit stayed in her mind and she hoped he understood his importance, to her and to everyone. He had to come back.