Chapter 16

It took two weeks for Jane to stop vomiting blood and bile and keeping her food down. But she could walk around her room a little. But it took another week for the sores on her body to leave. The Nightblood worked perfectly well, and left no marks on her. She was as good as new.

And during those three weeks, Bellamy and Raven had the Ring running full speed. Almost. You don't need full speed for only eight people. Monty showed Emori and Echo how to work the farm, although the algae wound be harvestable only three months after they arrived. Then, Monty went to work on the communications room – aka the Com Room. There was a lot to do and fix. A lot of it fried when Kane took the Ark down, so there were a lot of repairs to do. Monty had help, thanks to Raven. She was able to fix the radio receptors but not the emitters. They were beyond repair.

They took turns preparing the meals – rations brought from Becca's lab – and cleaning up. They had to ration only one meal a day, until the algae harvest. The only things they didn't have to ration was the water – there was enough for everyone and even more – and the beds. They could all have twenty-three beds if they wanted. But they all bunked up in the same area.

"No need using the whole Ring," Bellamy had said. "We're going to have to clean up everything. So let's limit it to that place."

"What else do we have to do, anyway?" Murphy said, laughing.

"Fine," Raven said. "You're on janitor duty, then."

Everyone laughed and Murphy rolled his eyes.

But the truth was, there wasn't much to do anyway. there was still two months left before harvest and algae salad. There was no one to communicate with outside the Ring. Board games had been on a part of the Ark that went down to the Ground. The only person with enough work was Raven: there were so many things to fix and put back together.

Bellamy was itching for something to do. He paced the halls up and down for a long part of the days. Or he would work out in a nearby room, one no one had claimed. He did jumping jacks, push-ups, sit-ups, lifting, pushing, anything. He needed to do something to numb the pain of losing Clarke. Yes, he still had Jane. But Clarke had always been there for him, whatever stupid decision he had made. She had always been there for them. She had saved them more than once. So he spent at least two or three hours every day locked up in his workout room. It was his way of coping with his loss.

Jane knew that her skills were not a necessity. Monty and Raven could fix up things. But she knew they missed one important thing. And since Clarke wasn't here, she needed to take matters in her hands. She headed for the medical bay and started to go through what was left. A couple boxes from Becca's Lab were lying there on the ground, untouched. She decided to go through them and write down an inventory of what they had – medicine, bandages, and whatever tools and medical supplies she could find. It took her three days to sort through everything they had and decide what to do with it all. Once the boxes and 'local' supplies were sorted, she looked for something that could teach her a few things. They needed a medic on this Ring.

She was looking for a medical book or something, when she found a tablet. It was uncharged, of course, so she went to see Monty in the Com Room.

"Hey, Monty," she said entering. His brow was furrowed over some kind of panel full of wires. "Am I interrupting?"

He shook his head and looked at her. "No. I'm just trying to get the communication on the Ring going. With this, we could talk through the mike here, and the whole Ring would hear it. We wouldn't need to run after people to find them."

Jane chuckled. "Good thinking. And how's that going?"

He shrugged. "Not sure. But I'll figure it out. Did you want something?"

"Uh, yeah. I found this in the medical bay, and it's uncharged. Do you think you can find a charger for it? Or charge it somehow?"

He took the Tablet in his hands and studied the port. "Sure. Raven and I gathered all the wires we could find on the Ring. There has to be something for this. Wait here."

Jane nodded and she sat where Monty was sitting while he went looking for a cable. He came back not two minutes later. "Found it," he said giving it to her, smiling. "You just have to plug it somewhere."

"Thanks!" she ran out of the Com Room and headed back to the medical bay. She found a plug and put the cable in it. It took a few minutes for the Tablet to buzz to life, but once it did, Jane went through some of it. It was exactly what she needed. Instructions to follow in case of a medical emergency – stitching up a wound, blood and blood marrow extraction, surgeries,… But as she went through it, she thought that this was a bad idea. There was so much to know, and she had zero experience in medical stuff.

"To hell with it," she said to herself, changing position to be more comfortable on the floor against the wall. "We're stuck here for five years, and we'll need a medic at some point. I have to do this." She started from the beginning and poured over everything. Every day, she would spend as much time as her brain would allow her, learning and pouring over the contents of the Tablet. And if she needed to find something specific, she simply had to type in a key-word or symptoms and the Tablet would give her entries to choose from.

A week later – it had been a month on the Ring, already – Jane was still reading through the medical stuff in her Tablet, when she heard statics on the speakers.

"Attention, everyone. The communication system on the Ring is now fully working!" Monty said through the mike in the Com Room, a smile in his voice. "General messaged will come through here. No more running after each other to talk to each other. We'll simply call you." He laughed, and Jane could also hear Raven chuckling next to him.

Jane smiled. People were finally smiling and laughing again. This was their home now, and they were stuck together in space for five years. No use running from it. Might as well embrace it.

She started to read again, but the lines crossed and she knew it was time to stop for the day. She had been pouring over bone marrow extraction for a couple days. She had an idea in mind, but she wasn't sure about it. She needed to know more about the process before she talked about it to anyone.

A small knock on the door made her jump. "Come in," she called out, and Bellamy walked in, a light smile on his face. His hair was damp from a recent shower. Jane's shoulders slumped a little, but she tried not to show it. She knew he had been working out, because he always took a shower afterwards. And she also knew why he did it. It left a bittersweet feeling in her heart. She was glad he was working out because he was getting hot – although he already was – but it also meant that he had been doing it to clear his mind of Clarke.

"There you are," he said, closing the door behind him. She patted the floor beside her and invited him to sit. He did. "So, what are you up to?"

"Still going through the medical book."

He smiled. "Careful, you're gonna be smarter than me."

"Bell, I already am."

He laughed and kissed her on the side of her head.

"Besides, there was really a lot of things I didn't know about the human body. My body. And maybe if I had known these things two years ago, we-"

"Jane," he said, cutting her. "What happened two years ago was meant to be. We wouldn't have gone to the Ground first-hand, we wouldn't have had Octavia, and we wouldn't have had prepared the way for the rest of our people. A lot of things could have happened without the events of two years back." He looped his arm around her shoulders. "And I wouldn't exchange it for anything."

"Not any of it?"

He sighed. "Most of it I wouldn't exchange." He tried out a small smile for her sake. "But it's a really good thing you're doing this. We're gonna need a medic here. And without-" he stopped abruptly. Jane knew he was going to say without Clarke there's no one to do it. Because she had thought of it, too.

"It's okay, Bell, you can say her name," Jane said softly, taking it upon herself. She knew she would regret it. But it was out, now. And now he was silent. "Okay," she said standing up. "It's our turn to prepare the daily super."

He snapped out of his daze about Clarke, nodded and took the hand Jane was offering him to stand. Once he was on his feet, he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her long and hard. He broke the kiss a moment later and rested his forehead on hers. "I love you, you know that?"

Jane had her moments of doubts about that, but she nodded nonetheless. "I know, she said softly, brushing his lips with hers "I love you, too."

A grin spread on his face and they walked arm in arm to the kitchen area and prepared the rations for everyone. Once that was done, they went to the Com Room and called everyone for dinner through the mike.

"This was really a great idea, Monty," Bellamy said, clasping Monty on the shoulder. "Nice job."

"Do you even know me, Bellamy?"

Jane, Monty and Bellamy all laughed and Jane was sure that this was the start of something new: laughing and thriving. No more fighting and surviving.

But little did she know that this was not the start at all. It was just the calm before the storm. No one was prepared for what was about to come their way. No one. Not even down-to-earth-Raven.

No one.