It started off as a distance hum, but it became clearer the more she tried to focus on it. Someone was talking, a voice she recognized.
"She's been asleep for days, when is she going to wake up?" The voice asked, her brain too foggy to put a face to it.
"She suffered multiple beatings, give her time." The second voice was equally as fuzzy. Trying harder to push the fogginess aside she muttered a small sound. Which made one of the two people gasp.
"She's waking up, go get him." The second voice ordered. "Rhea, come on, come back to us." The more the person spoke the more she realized that she knew them, it was Clarke.
"Clarke." She managed to force out, her throat was dreadfully sore due to lack of use.
"Yes, I'm here." Clarke began to stroke her hair in comfort. Trying to keep the older woman calm so she didn't rip her stitches.
"Bellamy." Rhea tried to whisper once more, the pain in her throat increasing.
"He's coming Rhea, he'll be here any second. Here have some water." Clarke said as she brought a water jug to Rhea's parched lips. The liquid felt almost heavenly as it drippled down her throat. The water seemed to give Rhea the little bit of a push she needed to open her eyes. They didn't open at first, but she fought with them for a moment. Just as a commotion came from the other side of the room, they flew open. Her vision was very blurry at first but once it cleared her eyes locked onto a pair of chocolate brown, that belonged to Bellamy Blake.
"I'll leave you two alone." Clarke muttered awkwardly, fully aware that she had been forgotten the second Bellamy had arrived. Rhea attempted to sit up and was surprised by how quick Bellamy flew to her side at the sight of her wincing.
"Whoa there, slow down, you just woke up." Putting his hand on her shoulder, the look on his face begging her to take it easy.
"Why are you here Bellamy?" She asked, she needed to know what she meant to him.
"To make sure that you are okay." But that wasn't the answer Rhea wanted so she sighed and shook her head.
"If you are going to lie to me then you might as well leave." To show that she meant what she said she laid back down and turned her head away from him.
"Rhea," His hand shooting out so he could make her look at him. "I'm not lying to you, I needed to know that you were okay. You've been asleep for 2 days." Bellamy softly told her, "You scared me, I thought you were gone." Tears started to brim his eyes as the thought of losing her came back into his head.
"Why would you care Bellamy? You made it clear that I am nothing but a member of the guard to you." She spat, not caring about whether her words hurt him or not. He acted as if she had slapped him, jumping back slightly, then just sat there as if he was trying to find the right words to say.
"I was wrong." In this moment she saw it, he was broken and scared. He didn't know how to lead these people, he was just winging it as he went along. At this realization she knew his actions were not intended to hurt her, but he genuinely thought it was the best thing for his people.
"Bellamy, I get it. Your people come first and I'm not one of them." Giving him a sad smile, but it was as if the words she spoke only made him angry because he shot up and began to pace.
"Goddammit woman, will you just listen to me for once?" He shouted at her, " You are part of my people, you always have been. We need you, all of us. Some of us were just too stupid to realize it. " He stopped pacing and knelt back down,
"We can't survive by doing whatever the hell we want, I know this now, so we are going to need you to teach us how to defend ourselves" He was much closer now, keeping his eyes on her face, as if looking for an answer.
"Those kids don't trust me Bellamy, they blame me for their misfortunes. I can't possibly help protect them if I am busy protecting myself from them." Her eyes drifting to the bruises along her body to prove her point. "Those kids did this too me, not some grounder, it was my own people. How can I trust them after that?" She looked at Bellamy as if begging for an answer, anything that might help her.
"The boy who cut you has suffered his punishment willingly, he knows he did wrong. They know that there is rules now, rules that if broken lead to punishment. You're safe." She looked at him as if scrutinizing every word, trying to determine if he actually meant what he was saying or if he was just saying it to make her feel better.
"Alright well, before I agree to this I have a request." His eyebrows raised as he heard this but he continued to wait.
"Get me out of this damn ship before I go mad." The laugh that came from him made her smile, she had missed it.
"Alright, but we have to be quick, if Clarke catches us we will both be back in here." Excitement spread through her, the last time she had felt like this was when she was 20, not long after she had met Bellamy for the first time.
"Bell! Wait up." She groaned, it was 3 am and her fellow cadet was making her creep through the halls of the ARK. Which due to how tired she was, the creeping part was not working out so well.
"Shh, Rhea, do you want us to get caught? You know Shumway will make us do 50 more push-ups as punishment." Bellamy whispered, with hopes that the reminder of Shumway and his harsh training exercises would convince the girl to quiet down.
"Where are we going?" This time Rhea made sure to whisper.
"It's just a little bit longer." Bellamy chuckled, the face Rhea was giving him was priceless.
"Come on, where are we going?" By this point she had decided to put on her best pout, one that she had mastered when she was a kid.
"Pouts don't work on me Goldie, you know that." Grunting in frustration she folded her arms to show that she was grumpy, but kept following him. Before she could ask him again, they came to a large window. Rhea had looked down at Earth from it many times before, imagining what it would be like to be down there.
"Bellamy, why are we here?" She questioned again, but the older boy just pulled her closer to the window by her elbow.
"Just give it a minute okay?" His eyes never leaving the window. Within a few minutes she saw something dash by the ARK followed by another quick movement. She could feel her eyes growing wide at the beauty of it.
"A meteor shower?" Bellamy nodded, turning to look at her. He looked at her face for a few moments and then continued to watch the meteor shower outside.
"I heard one was incoming, I wanted to see it, but not alone." He stated, something made her move her eyes to his face. It was like she was finally seeing him for who he really was. She had never been this close to him so now she could see the slight dash of freckles along his nose and cheeks, his masculine jawline and the chocolate colour of his eyes. He was very handsome, which would explain why she was suddenly very self conscious about her current state.
Not wanting to attract much attention she slowly moved her hand so she could make sure she didn't have any insane fly-aways. Patting them down when she noticed that her hair was a mess.
"You know, we have trained together for hours." Bellamy mentioned, looking down at her again amusement written all over his face. "and no matter how many fly-aways you may have, I still think you're beautiful" Rhea felt her hand drop to her side, stunned to the point of stillness.
"Pardon?" She questioned, wondering if maybe she had heard him incorrectly. Instead of responding to her Bellamy moved closer, his eyes never leaving hers. Without giving much of a warning, he kissed her softly, as if he was afraid to hurt her. That one kiss sent fireworks through out her body. It was like nothing she had ever felt before, and she loved it.
The ladder down was the worst part, she concluded. With her bruised stomach and unused legs it was almost torture. If someone else had been the one trying to master it, they might have given up, but not Rhea, she was too stubborn for that.
"Urgh!" She growled after having slipped off of one of the rungs. She didn't go very far before Bellamy's hands were at her waist. Swiftly he lifted her off of the ladder and planted her feet on the ground.
"I had it." She insisted with a slight pout. Chuckling he rolled his eyes and walked towards the entrance to the drop ship. Most likely trying to check to see if the coast was clear. Rhea took this time to have a look around, at this point she noticed the group of people looking grief stricken in the back of the drop ship.
"Hey chums, why so glum?" She questioned, a small part of her worried about the answer they were going to give her.
"I fried the wristbands." Was the response she received from Jasper, disappointment written all over his face.
Letting out a small sigh she walked over to him and stood infront of him. She had known how important the wristbands were to the kids that had families on the ARK.
"Jasper, whatever happened, you are not to blame. The components used to make those wrist bands were old, anything could have fried them." She said, giving him a nudge with her foot. "We'll find another way to show them that it's safe down here. I promise." He seemed to accept that because he gave her a small smile.
"Hey you, coast is clear. Are you coming?"Bellamy shouted, Rhea gave him a pointed looked before sending a wink towards Jasper.
"Time to escape, oh and if you see Clarke, I was never here." She waved her hands around before attempting to scurry out of the drop ship, earning a chuckle from Jasper.
"Clarke could show up any minute, come on." Bellamy was clearly impatient with her, but she didn't care. Standing at the end of the ramp to the drop ship she breathed in the fresh air.
"Rhea," Bellamy whined earning a glare from the girl in front of him.
"Whining just doesn't suit you." Sending him a goofy grin she grabbed his chin roughly and shook it back and forth before walking towards the gate of the camp.
"Where are you going?" Demanded Bellamy.
"Escaping." Acting as if it was an obvious answer, Rhea continued to walk.
"Oh no you don't, you said you wanted to get out of the drop ship. Not camp." At this he grabbed her arms and turned her towards the camp again, leading her towards the center of it.
"But Bellamy," she whined but was quickly shut down.
"No, Rhea. You are staying in camp and that's it." She knew there was no arguing with him so she started to walk towards the ladder to the roof of the drop ship. Before he could say anything to stop her she started to climb.
"Rhea are you serious right now?" Clearly frustrated he began to climb behind her.
"You know ,Mr. Important Leader, you could go do important leader things." Rhea taunted, laughing as she heard a growl behind her. Reaching the top of the drop ship she just stood there for a minute, smiling at the beauty of the sky above her. The sun was setting around them so the sky was a mix of orange, pink and red, it was like nothing she had ever seen before.
"Jeez, how can you climb that but not get down the..." Bellamy began but once he noticed the sky he cut short stunned by the beauty of it. The both of them just stood there for the longest time, afraid that if they said anything they would ruin the moment.
Rhea's legs began to wobble, so she plopped her butt down onto the flat part of the roof. Looking up at Bellamy, she cleared her throat to get his attention, once he looked at her she patted the roof beside her. He sat down beside her, making sure to leave some space between them. By this point the stars had started to come out so Rhea leaned back, trying not jolt her stitches.
"Do you remember the night of the meteor shower?" He inquired, not taking his eyes away from the sky above them. She let out a soft 'Mhm' in response, not wanting to talk very loudly.
"I was nervous about that night for a week." Bellamy admitted, "I wanted it too be perfect. Heck, I even asked the cadets that were on duty that night to patrol that hallway last." This confession made Rhea look at him with shock, he had never told her this before.
"You could have gotten in trouble."
"It would have been worth it, why do you think we became partners to begin with?" By now he was no longer looking at the sky, his full attention was on her. He continued before she could muster up and answer.
"Malcolm didn't refuse to be partnered up with you for no reason. I begged him to switch. Which worked in his favour considering he married Elisa within a year." Bell smirked at the memory of the two people that had been their friends. Rhea smiled at the memory of her friends as well, they had been so supportive of her after everything that happened,
Watching him Rhea suddenly felt the courage to ask him one of the questions that had been nagging at her for a long time.
"Bell, where did you go?" Her voice wasn't much higher than a whisper, afraid that he would lash out at her for even asking. Braving a glance his way she could tell that he wasn't going to get angry. He was just looking at her, his eyes drifting across her face like he was trying to remember everything about it.
"They made sure that I was in the deepest pit they could find." He stated, not wanting to elaborate much more. Rhea wanted to know what he meant but she didn't push him, exhaustion suddenly starting to hit her like a brick.
"You know, nothing was the same, it was like a big piece of the guards dynamic was just gone" She stated as she look away from his face and back towards the view infront of her.
He noticed how tired she was getting so he motioned for her to lay down beside him before he spoke.
"I couldn't face them, and even if I could have, I wasn't allowed." He told her, his voice holding so much pain. The year he was forced away from her and his friends had been the hardest thing he had ever experienced, he was going to continue until he heard a soft snore from where Rhea was laying. Glancing down he saw that she had fallen asleep not long after she had laid her head down. Quickly taking off his jacket he gently placed it over her small frame, hoping it would keep her warm as she slept.
"I missed you." Was the last thing Bellamy muttered, looking down at the girl that had held his heart for so long.
The first day he had ever laid eyes on her he knew that he had to make her his. Which was why he had agreed to spit shining Malcolm's boots for 3 months in order for him to agree to switch partners.
He was hooked, not even looking at his neighbour that had been his go too whenever he had need to release my tension, from the first time they kissed. Even now, just her scent on the breeze was driving him mad. When he made the decision to let her go a year ago it felt like his heart was left with her. He knew that once he left her, he would never be able to get her back.
Now here he was not even a foot away from her and he couldn't bring himself to make a move, even though his heart was screaming at him to do something, anything! He still felt like she deserved better, he was weak and she needed someone strong that could protect her, especially in a world like this. This thought made him rip his eyes from her face, he jumped up and walked towards the ladder. With one last look at her peaceful expression he left. He needed to find something to take his mind off of her.
Walking through the camp he looked left and right, looking for some kind of task that might help him. There was nothing. Hearing a giggle to his right he saw two girls looking at him, their eyes filled with lust. With one last glance towards the roof of the drop ship he walked towards them, whispering in the brunette's ear, giving her a suggestion that made her eyes go wide.
The rest of the night Bellamy used those girls to help him forget about the woman that plagued his thoughts.