Bellamy

Finally, after being spoon fed and drugged and coddled and sponge bathed for what seemed like forever, Bellamy was able to move well enough and stay conscious long enough to start to do those things for himself. His appetite returned with a vengeance and he ate so much he was worried Lala would get frustrated with him, but she seemed to love it, patting his cheeks each time she brought him a new meal. Despite the fact that they could barely understand a word that each other was saying at any given time, still they managed to hold a kind of conversation together.

Bellamy's leg had also improved dramatically- the wound was mostly closed, pink but healing, and the skin was no longer fiery hot to the touch. The poultices the two women applied and the bitter medicines they forced down his throat several times a day seemed to be doing the trick, and each day that passed the leg could take more weight.

He was sitting up in a chair in front of the fire, a fur wrapped around his shoulders, devouring a bowl of stew, when Echo walked into the hut. She gave him an approving nod. "You are gaining weight."

"Yeah, finally," he remarked. He'd become so skinny during his convalescence that he could count each of his ribs with his fingertips. Echo sat down in the chair next to him and frowned at the floor a moment, not saying anything. Bellamy swallowed and asked, "What's happened?"

"I have been asking around in the village, as you suggested," she told him. "I have learned something that may upset you."

Bellamy set down his bowl of stew. "She's been gone for how long how?" he asked softly. "I'm already upset. Just tell me."

"Your sister was betrayed by the people here."

"Betrayed?" he repeated, feeling himself pale a little. "What does that mean?"

"Mount Weather issued a bounty for all Sky People," she explained gently. "Octavia may look Trikru from a distance, but people quickly determined her true origins, and they alerted bounty hunters who operate in this region."

"But Mount Weather is gone," he protested. "There's no one in there for them to sell her to anymore."

Echo hesitated. "That is correct," she said. "But we are far from Mount Weather, and I don't know that news of its fall has reached this village."

"But then who has her? What would they do with her if they couldn't take her to Mount Weather?"

She shook her head. "I do not know the answer to that."

He felt his fear erupt into anger and he banged his fist on the arm of his chair. "Dammit, then we need to find out!"

Echo glared at him. "I have discovered what I could. I had to be delicate- if it is determined that you are also a Sky Person, you may be betrayed in the same manner as Octavia. That is, if you have not already. We should leave this village as soon as possible."

"And let them get away with this?" he snapped. "They sold her out… they deserve to be punished."

"And is this punishment more important than finding your sister?" she growled, causing Bellamy to wince. "The people here are poor," she continued, her voice soft. "Many people do not trade with the Plains Clan because they are seen as pariahs. Their children are more likely to be born deformed, and this causes them to be stigmatized among the clans. The soil of their lands is close to dead and they can grow very little. They must make a living how they can, and they have no loyalty to your sister, or to your people. It is doubtful they even know the entirety of what Mount Weather would have done to her."

"Then we have to find the bounty hunters," Bellamy said. "We have to know where they took her. Do you have any idea?"

She hesitated, and then she said finally, "I do not wish to speculate."

He gritted his teeth. "Speculate anyway."

Echo let out a long breath. "There are many who could find value in a Sky Person," she said. "Some may wish to trade her to your people for technology… there are slavers who may wish to take her as a prize…" She frowned thoughtfully. "I assume she is not a virgin?"

Bellamy closed his eyes and dropped his head into his hands. "God… we have to find her. We have to." Echo reached out and touched his forearm, but he jerked away from her. He stood up, pacing to one wall and then back again. "I can't just sit here anymore."

"I will continue to ask around, try to determine where she may have gone and who might have her," Echo promised. "But you must be patient."

"Goddammit, I can't be patient!" he exploded. "Not with everything you just said."

Echo glared at him. "As I said," she told him firmly. "I did not wish to speculate. You forced those words from my lips."

Bellamy opened his mouth to retort something, but before he could do so the door of the hut burst open, distracting both of them from their argument. A man stood there, backlit from the sunlight outside, leaning heavily on one side of the doorframe. His face and chest were so caked with dried blood that Bellamy didn't immediately recognise him, and his chest heaved with every breath.

Echo rushed forward to take the man's weight onto her shoulder and help him stagger over to the pallet that had recently belonged to Bellamy, and eased him down onto it. Only then did Bellamy realise who he was looking at.

"Lincoln!" he called urgently as he hurried to the pallet. "Lincoln, where's O?" He grabbed the older man by the shoulders and gave him a shake. "Where is she?"

"Stop!" Echo said, shoving Bellamy so hard he fell backward. "Leave him be." She took a cup of water and held it to Lincoln's lips, but he couldn't even drink, and she was only able to wet his lips.

"Bellamy," he whispered, his voice so quiet it was almost a whisper. "I'm sorry…"

Quickly going back to Lincoln's side, Bellamy felt his heart pounding in his chest, that sick feeling of dread rising in his stomach as he whispered, "Where is she?"

"The mountain," Lincoln managed. "The mountain has her."

Bellamy frowned. "What's wrong with him?" he asked Echo. "Is he confused?"

"Quite likely," she answered in a half-growl. "You must let him breathe for a moment before you interrogate him."

"Lincoln, what are you talking about?" Bellamy asked, ignoring Echo's request. He tried to catch Lincoln's eyes, and he could see how unfocused they were. "Mount Weather is gone, remember? Where is Octavia?"

Lincoln shook his head. "No," he whispered. "No, not Mount Weather… the bounty hunters took her somewhere else… another mountain."

Bellamy's eyes widened as he looked at Echo, and he saw a matching expression of horror her face. Both of them knew exactly what kind of torture Octavia must be facing if there really was another mountain.

"Where is it?" he asked urgently. "Where is she?"

"The… mountain…" His eyelids fluttered as he struggled to stay conscious.

Bellamy grabbed Lincoln once more and once more Echo pushed him off. She slapped him hard across the face to stop him from trying again. "He has lost a lot of blood and he is very weak," she said. "If you continue to push, he may die, and then we will never find your sister. Celebrate the fact that Octavia is alive, and be patient for what will follow. Go and get Lala now. She's in the garden."

"Echo-"

"Now, Bellamy!" she yelled, almost spitting with fury. Despite his terror for Octavia, her wrath got him moving and he stumbled to his feet and out of the hut to fetch the healer, who rushed back inside to help them.

It was only when the three of them started working on Lincoln that Bellamy began to appreciate just how seriously he was wounded. They stripped him down and his dark skin was mottled with even darker bruises, head to toe. Lala pointed out sites of internal bleeding, and carefully ran fingertips across his bones and identified six broken ribs and a fractured collarbone. He had also been stabbed, but only by some miracle had the blade managed to miss his organs.

Once his ribs were bound, his stab wound stitched, and his shoulder stabilised, Lala went to sleep and Echo sat down heavily in her chair. Bellamy watched Lincoln carefully, noticing how hard he seemed to be working for every breath.

"He has been given medicine to keep him asleep," Echo spoke up, her voice filled with tension. "If he lives for the next two days, he will survive this."

Bellamy sat down on his own chair and looked at her. He opened his mouth and then closed it again, not knowing what to say.

"You behaved appallingly today," Echo said after an uncomfortable silence. She wouldn't look at him; she only glared into the fire for a long time before shaking her head. "I am disappointed in you." She stood up abruptly and left the hut.

He felt a surge of anger, but it was followed quickly with shame. His eyes trailed to Lincoln and he thought of how he had helped Octavia to take Lincoln alive when he'd been a Reaper, how strongly he'd wanted to save the man's life. But even then it hadn't been because of Lincoln, but because of Octavia's attachment to him- he'd known then how much it would have destroyed her to lose this man that she loved, so he had thrown his weight behind trying to save him.

But now, when it came to Octavia being in danger, he knew he would have shaken Lincoln until he died if it would have gotten the information out of him- if Echo had let him.

He closed his eyes for a moment, fighting the shame and guilt that rose up to engulf him, imagining what Octavia would think of him now.

Kneeling down next to Lincoln, he dipped a cloth in cool water and laid it across the man's forehead, remembering how good that had felt when he himself had been bedridden. "Hey," he said softly, not even sure whether Lincoln would be able to hear him. "Remember when I was pissed at you for abandoning me to do drugs?" He let out a heavy sigh. "Yeah… we're even now."

He watched Lincoln's face for a while, seeing his forehead twitching as he fought hard to stay alive, and then he got up and went to his chair. The guilt made it hard to sleep, but eventually exhaustion won and he drifted off.