My gosh, the number of views and story alerting happening with this story is encouraging. You guys made me blush! *o*

Anyway, there are three little footnotes in this chapter. Read if you're interested. Also, this chapter has some material that has the potential to be confusing plot-wise. So shoot me questions if this is the case with you while you're reading.

And I haven't mentioned this yet, but reviews are awesome, so...(ya'll should do 'the thing').

Warning: mild language up ahead. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own The 100. That's all Jason Rothenberg and Kass Morgan. But I do own Micah, Tevin, Veronica, Coal, and Martin.

Faya Gada | 3

Tevin knocked on the metal slab of a door. The door slid open and large hands pulled him through the threshold. He heard the swoosh of the door just before his back was slammed against it.

"Where's Veronica?"

Tevin almost answered the question but decided not to. He had heard about Veronica's possible involvement in some case. What he didn't know was if Pike was supposed to know about it. Due to his relationship with Micah he knew he had to walk on eggshells around his former Earth Skills teacher, being that he is the reason Micah joined the Guard in the first place thus damaging her relationship with her father.

"Woah, dude," he nervously laughed. "Cool it for just a moment?"

Pike pulled on the front of the guard's uniform. He hadn't meant to be so aggressive toward the young man, but his feelings were always heightened when he saw his daughter's friend. "I asked you a question, Tevin. Where is Veronica?"

The guard straightened up and lowered his voice a bit. "Mr. Pike…I could have you charged with assaulting an officer and I really don't wanna do that."

As if realizing he had lost himself, Charles dropped his hands. He stepped backwards into his and Veronica's tiny kitchenette, leaning on the counter.

This time when he pressed, he sounded much calmer. "Did they take Veronica?"

Seeing the anguish in the man's eyes, Tevin nodded his head but elaborated, "Just for questioning. She hasn't committed any crime that we know of." He knew the system was all about being caught. "There's just this huge case their working on—"

"Case?" Pike ran his hand down his face in exasperation. Why would they need Veronica? Whose idea was it to take his wife?

Immediately, a curly head came into his mind and his thoughts shifted to the young woman that used to sit on his shoulders as a little girl to see over crowds of people.

The day his daughter expressed interest in enforcing the law just because of some scrawny kid, Charles nearly threw a chair. He was an avid supporter of the Ark's justice system and as tough as it was, floatation never really bothered him. It was an awful thing that occurred when it hit close to home. But if no one home broke the law, there was no reason to oppose the necessary practice.

No, the problem with Mikey's involvement in the Guardsmen was all the risk. She may be a tough girl but he knew she was a very empathetic person, even when she didn't show it. Her work in the Violent Crimes unit didn't help him none to sleep at night knowing how much her work could be hurting her psychologically.

He still remembered her staggering through their door, face fresh with salted tears and blood caked into her fingernails. She cried on his and Veronica's shoulder and told them of the suicidal father that had lost his son to disease. The Ark didn't have the proper medicine to treat the rare condition and the father nicked a major artery in his own neck with a pair of surgical scissors, unable to go on with his life. Mikey had the chance to stop him. She could've shot him in the leg or somewhere minor to distract him. But she hesitated. In her shock, she had caught the dying man in her arms, his blood literally on her hands. While he had insisted that it wasn't her fault—which is wasn't—she just threw herself into his wife's arms, crying her pain away.

After that day, she started hiding things, holding her feelings dangerously close. She stopped coming home for dinner and though she gained a lot of muscle from self-imposed physical training, she started to thin out. Probably from not eating.

What had thrown Charles over the edge was finding out she had formed a…physical relationship with one of the other cadets in her group. Scandalous news spread like wildfire on that space station. His daughter's business would be no exception. And he had to find out from one of his students.

In his vengeful lecturing, he just couldn't cease from telling her she couldn't act like a harlot while living under his roof.

Which is why she no longer lived under said roof.

"…Does this have anything to do with Mikey?"

"What?" Tevin's eyebrows pulled together. "I think if Micah did something, I would know about it. Besides, you know your daughter can't lie. Couldn't lie to save her life." Pike crossed his arms. "Why bother committing a crime you can't lie about?"

Charles examined Tevin.

This boy had once barely stood at his chest. Now he reached beyond Pike's head a few inches with his hair clean-shaven and form filled out. But he could still see the lost puppy that would follow his little girl around the classroom. He had let her fight his battles, keep the bullies at bay; the scared child was too afraid to defend himself. It was him who was too afraid to join the Guard and convinced Micah to apply with him. Tevin had taken his Mikey away from him.

At Pike's silence, the other man saw an opportunity. "Hey, I…I never got the chance to talk to you about...you know, everything."

Pike's eyes seemed to not really be focusing on him. Tevin knew that practically anything he said outside of answering his teacher's questions held little interest. But Micah was his best friend, and if there was a chance to fix her damaged relationship with her family…

"That…," Tevin searched for the right wording with his hands on his hips. "…thing Mike and I did that one night."

"I know you all were young and stupid. I don't need a reminder of that."

"Oh, right…" The guard felt the pressure in his shoulders decrease. "Look, it didn't mean anything. We were just fooling around and—"

"You were being kids. I know. Your generation is always so quick to forget that I was a kid once too."

It seemed that even Pike was unwinding a little, his wife's whereabouts still in the small corner of his mind. And surprisingly, the two shared a little laugh at their own memories.

"I'm actually really relieved to hear that, sir." He let out a breath. "You know, I thought this conversation was supposed to be a lot more awkward."

Pike blinked. "Why ever for? I may miss my trophy, but I don't need a piece a metal to tell me I'm good at my job. No hard feelings."

He got a confused expression in response. "…Trophy? I didn't trash your trophy. That was Micah."

Tevin was rewarded with a confused look of his own.

"So…we're not talking about when my trophy got welded into a fork?"

"No. I was talking about when we were together."

"Together, like…? What the hell are we talking about, boy?"

Just then a crackle broke through.

"cccrrr…Grus to Graham…cccrrr…You're needed in Sector 4…cccrrr."

Tevin nearly cried in relief. "Graham here. On route to you, sir...cccrrr."

Charles' body tensed back up. What had this boy had been about to say?

"Mr. Pike, I've thoroughly enjoyed this little visit which probably won't happen again for another year. But duty calls. Oh, if I hear anything about Veronica…"

He trailed off, leaving it up to Pike to infer his meaning. He couldn't have ran out of there faster.

Marcus Kane was a headstrong leader with a no-nonsense attitude. While others felt that he was overstepping his boundaries, Micah felt like he wasn't doing it enough. There were twelve space stations afloat hovering around the sickly Earth with nearly twenty-six hundred people living and breathing limited resources. She knew that there was an ethics to any empire or civilization, but she sometimes saw how the ethics fell short for the people of the Ark. Wasted supplies, broken families, frozen bodies shooting from the airlock. While she understood that the rules were there to help them thrive, she had a hard time understanding the when and why.

There were times in human history where certain societies had to limit population growth or rule under martial law to preserve a nation. Greats such as Twain, Stephen King [1], and Orwell littered their work with both the greatest and worst parts of humanity. She couldn't help comparing the Ark to that of the dystopic society depicted by Orwell. Often times it seemed like there was a Big Brother watching over their shoulders, a Big Brother that didn't give a damn about special circumstances. She wondered if Kane called her there for another special circumstance.

When Kane remained standing, Micah started sweating from her armpits. She could feel a tickle.

"Sit."

She obeyed and he didn't talk for a long time.

The last time she was in this office, it was in response to an incident with medical. The Ark's contraceptive [2] capabilities were so heavily sparse that some women—those that have no other children—were forced to bear their children whether they have the means to care for the child or not. The woman's only alternative would've been self-harm. It was a month ago when a woman and her unborn child were floated. Because she already had a child of her own and refused to get rid of the one on its way, she broke the law. She broke the law by choosing to not kill her unborn child.

Not knowing how sensitive the subject was for her, Kane brought her along to the airlock chamber where she was put in charge of comforting the woman. Micah remembers her name, Gemma Neely, because that was also the first time she had ever killed someone. There of course was the time when she wasn't able to save a grieving father from ending his life, and she still blamed herself for that. But her pressing that big red button made Gemma's death different. This was a black mark on Micah's soul.

She knew another part of it was that she could see a bit of herself in the woman. She never told anybody, but she had gone through a similar situation herself when she had just graduated from Cadet to Guardsman two years prior to Gemma's execution. She fooled around with the wrong person and got knocked up. Her new privileges as a guard granted her options that Gemma didn't have. But like a coward, she took it. She killed her baby just so she could continue working in law enforcement [3]. That was where she and Gemma were different, other than Gemma already having a child. Gemma was brave and stood up for her child. Micah had killed her baby.

She could still recall the remark Kane made to her when she tried to side with Gemma in her court hearing. 'She made the choice to break the law,' he had said. In other words, she made the choice to die. Micah cried at these words and he didn't know why, but that's because he had no idea who he was saying those words to. But what if that had been me? Micah thought. What if she had made the choice to die?

"Great performance."

Micah knew that was meant to be sarcastic, but anyone else wouldn't be able to tell. She crossed her arms over her chest and slumped lazily in the metal chair, face locked. "Always happy to please. Curious—how much did you see?"

"Well you turned into my miniature and nearly dislocated that man's knee—"

Micah exploded, her mask dropping. "Oh, come on! A guy like that needed to be put in his place."

"Hmm, and what place is that? A civilian grievance so you can get floated off this station?"

She couldn't help rolling her eyes. This man was always being so dramatic and she voiced this. "Floated? Oh, you mean like those parents that steal for their kids?"

His fist slammed against the wall beside him, "Dammit, Pike! You're always joking." The action would've startled her, but she was expecting this discussion to fly more on the aggressive side. While Kane had a strong, unyielding command, Micah was unforgiving and didn't apologize for her actions. Another reason, she was sitting in that chair just looking at him. "Are you not afraid of me, is that it?"

"What is there to be afraid of?"

"I'm a councilman. I have the Guard, AKA you, in my back pocket. Does that mean anything to you?"

She pretend to think. "No, not really."

"Well, it should. Tell me, how much time do we spend together?"

Micah was confused. "As of late, none?"

"No, no. Don't be literal. How many hours a week do I spend lecturing you, teaching you strategies, combat techniques, doing book reports, sitting in on Council meetings…How many hours?"

It seemed like a strange question of him to ask, but she figured it would lead to him somehow pointing his finger at her. She was simply showing that prick who was in charge. It wasn't her fault it required physical interaction to figure that out.

"Kane, you know I'm good at throwing punches, not numbers."

"A lot of hours, Pike. The answer is a lot of hours." The man couldn't help running his hand over his face in frustration. She wasn't getting the point. "Why would I spend all that time doing those things with you? Why would I, an esteemed Councilman, spend all my precious time with you, a sentry with a bad attitude? Why would I do that?"

"Because you don't actually have anything better to do…?"

"No! I," Kane stepped in front of his desk and leaned on it, his palms digging into the metal. "I need you, Pike. I need someone like you. You're an independent thinker, even a little self-righteous—"

"Sounds just like you," she quipped back.

"Exactly. So what I don't need is you mucking up the place with your brashness and insensitivity just because one guy couldn't play well with others. You may be well-liked by the masses, but there are sharks stalking these waters, waiting for you to mess up. And if you do mess up, there will be nothing I can do to help you."

Finally getting his point across, he could see her pulling in her overbearingness and sober up. "…What do I need to do?"

"Take on these new initiates. Make guards out of them. It's your new responsibility." When he saw her open her mouth to object, he decided to elaborate further. "Think like a leader, Pike. My commander is down doing God knows what and I don't have the time to babysit. You do this, it helps fortify the Guard, you look more like a leader to everyone else, and you'll most likely get the cadets to pledge their allegiance to you. Before you can take over, you'll need some people already on your side."

As much as she hated to admit it, he was completely right. She was absolutely ready to turn down the offer, but once he explained the situation she realized what they were planning would be a huge shift in command. Unfortunately, a lot of their people functioned on loyalty. Who you followed, back-stabbed, and floated changed how people reacted and how they will follow you. If Kane could get her this promotion, she had to do what she could to grab it. So much change needed to happen, and it seemed that only she could do it.

"I'll also be needing you to deliver a sincere apology. I don't know much about Martin, but from reading his profile, he's a guy people listen to." What? Really? "Factory station is the station we have the least influence in. He represents all of them, and they look up to him. Get him and the other two, Coal and Bellamy, to work as a team…It just might be the support you'll need when the time comes."

At her silence, Kane knew she was listening and processing it all. She had slipped her political hat on as soon as he mentioned the cadets' support. He had hoped all of this had already gone through her head, but better late than never.

She agreed with his plan, of course, but it didn't stop her from rolling her eyes as she headed toward the door.

"And Pike, you might wanna freshen up before visiting medical…You look like shit."

Footnotes:

1 – I included Stephen King among-st the great authors of the land before A.L.I.E.'s screw up. He is a fantastic writer that, in my opinion, captures so many parts of people—even the disturbing parts. By the time Micah reads his work, it's more than a century later so I say he can be a "great."

2 – Another made up concept of the Ark that I've created. I imagine that medical services such as contraceptives are a privilege on a place like the Ark as it's been nearly a century since it was launched into space. Supplies would have to be running out in other places than just air. So abortions and preventive measures like patches and shots are a special benefit that is not advertised. It's totally up to the Council to decide who gets to have what based on circumstance (and unfortunately, your importance in society). Most females get their tubes tied or surgeries like hysterectomies after giving birth once. This procedure is costly for the woman as she is off her feet for a while (my own mother was down for nearly two months), can't provide for herself nor her family, and don't have access to the resources (like proper food) required to get her in full recovery mode; food is rationed on the Ark and these women would have a hard time getting more nourished (though they're all pretty malnourished to a certain point, I believe). So I imagine that lower class women don't typically flock to this option. It's just assumed that one is 'careful' in the bedroom.

3 – So Micah had an abortion. She was 20 when this happened (she's 22 in this chapter). No one but the medical officer that performed the procedure knows about it. She chose to abort the child, but it's a decision she will agonize over for probably the rest of her life and have mixed feelings about. Sometimes she knows it was the right decision, but other times she'll think the opposite. Experiencing it through the eyes of other people in my life, making such a huge decision never actually settles. By that, I mean you could have an abortion and regret it, or wonder what would've come of that baby, or feel like crap. On the flip side, maybe it was the best thing that could come from the situation at the time and if you had the choice to go back and do it over, you would still chose to abort. It's never a cut-and-dry thing. No matter the choice or the reasons for it, it hurts and scars you in pretty much every way possible.

3 (continued) – Anyway, Micah's views on this subject do not reflect my own. Her beliefs are her own. She had the option of aborting and she took it while Gemma, a lower class woman whom already has a child is given no choice and is pressured to abort the child and choses to try and fight for her child to have a place in the world in spite of. There's a whole lot of regret and shame associated with Micah's decision. She second guesses herself and wonders if roles were reversed (her and Gemma), would she still have chosen to abort or would she try to protect it. This is a tough issue, but that doesn't mean it should never be talked about.