AN: Shout out to my three lovely reviewers: Bee-back, x XRoweenaJAugustineX x, and rideordie2! You guys made my day. I've written out about four chapters ahead in the story and see it ending up around twenty chapters. We'll see how that turns out.. Please read and review/alert, enjoy!

CHAPTER THREE

Dear fellow traveler, under the moon
I saw you standing in the shadows and your eyes won't move
You put your hand out, opened the door
You said come with me boy, I want to show you something more

You spoke my language and touched my limbs
It wasn't difficult to pull me from myself again

Sea Wolf

BEFORE

Desperation was the force that drove Bellamy Blake into the path of Nora Bishop. After putting off the task of finding the perfect gift for his sister's twelfth birthday, he had approached her in the Archives seeking advice from the only girl he saw. A twist of fate that he had chosen Nora, a girl who was more intelligent than he had anticipated.

"So, uh," he cleared his throat awkwardly, trying to the attention of the light haired girl seated in a comfortable seat in towards the back of the quiet Archives, an old book spread in her lap. Her head bopped slightly up and down as she ignored him, invested in her reading. He glanced around the Archives before speaking a little louder. "Hey, so, real quick question-"

He was cut short as the girl looked up from her book and loudly yelped in surprise at Bellamy's close proximity. An ear bud fell out as she jumped in her seat and a librarian down the aisle sent them both a pointed look before moving to help someone at the front desk. Giving her an apologetic look, he held out his hand to the girl, a touch embarrassed as he introduced himself. "I'm Bellamy Blake."

The girl nodded her head, giving him an odd look while choosing to ignore his hand. He frowned and lowered it, again feeling embarrassed. "I know who you are," she said with a shake of her head, causing a few strands of her hair to come free of the messy bun. She started to pack up her stuff as she glanced up at him and saw his confused expression. "Seriously? We've had at least one class together for like the last..," she stopped her packing to do the imaginary math with a finger and shrugged with a small smile. "For like the last forever," she finished lamely. "I'm Nora Bishop."

His cheeks tinged pink as he fumbled to find words to make up for his mistake, he remembered her now. They had in fact had a class together since first year. While he tended sit towards the back and kept to himself, she sat towards the front and took an active role in their classes. "I don't really talk to anyone," he explained quickly, stepping aside as she moved to walk towards the front. "I didn't mean to offend you."

She laughed again and pulled her school bag over both her shoulders, shrugging it on. He was starting to think that she laughed at anything. "You didn't offend me, Blake. But you probably came over with a purpose, so what's up?"

Nora looked at him patiently waiting as he stared at her, face blank. His question seemed stupid when faced with actually posing it to someone. What had he been thinking? Her eyes were focused on him, curiously waiting for whatever reason he had for coming up to her. Still feeling the slight burn of his cheeks, he figured he had little dignity left to lose. Trying to appear casual, he took a deep breath and out came, "So if I were a twelve year old girl, what would I want for my birthday?"

As soon as he said the words he wished he could reach out and grab them out of the air before they reached Nora. Too quickly he watched the expression of pure amusement burst onto her face as she laughed loudly, doing nothing to quiet herself as the librarian shushed her from the front desk. Her eyes sparkled as her face grew red from lack of air and Bellamy was growing impatient with her reaction. Feeling like a fool and more lost than when he started out on his gift-giving expedition, he shook his head as a dark expression clouded his face.

"Never mind," he muttered, pushing past her to for the front of the Archives. He was sure that Octavia would be less than impressed by the only gift he could think of, but it would be better than nothing. Feeling angry at the way that Nora had laughed at him, he headed for the door, determined not to let her make him feel any worse.

She leapt after him, putting a hand on his arm to keep him from leaving. "I'm sorry for laughing," she said honestly, awkwardly pulling back her hand as he stared at it, eyes still dark. "You have to admit that was a pretty funny opener though," she continued with a small laugh as he seemed to relax slightly. Giving him a thoughtful look she leaned against a nearby bookshelf. "I'm guessing you owe a twelve year old girl a birthday present?"

Rubbing the back of his neck, Bellamy nodded and shifted uncomfortably on his feet, eyeing the door enviously. "Her birthday is in three days and all I've come up with is a pair of socks," he admitted in defeat. He should have just taken his mother's advice and gotten her a new set of coloring pencils.

"Well, I think we can do a little bit better than a pair of old socks," Nora said, already thinking of a number of things that a girl Octavia's age would enjoy more than over-darned socks.

With a nod of her head, she headed for the exit, Bellamy staring after her in confusion. He stood up straight and quickly followed after her when she looked back at him expectantly. As they left the Archives she sent a cheery smile to the librarian, who only waved them out with a tired wave of his hand. Stepping out into the busy corridor of Go-Sci, she headed to the right and Bellamy fell into step beside her, doing his best to avoid oncoming traffic.

"I can talk to my mom and see if there's been anything neat left at the Purser's office lately," she said while side stepping a muttering engineering tech that pushed himself between the two teens, and shot him an annoyed glance before continuing down a different corridor. "One man's trash could a little girl's treasure," she explained with a smile. Coming to a stop in front of a residential quarter, she motioned to the door as she pulled out her ID card.

"This is me," she said while scanning the card and opened the door to her family's quarters, stopping to look at him. "Do you want to come over the night after next and I promise that I'll have a present for you by then?"

Catching a look into her family's quarters he was surprised that they looked almost identical to his own, save for a small room off the main one that he guessed belonged to her parents. Her bunk, covered in numerous text books and library books, was hooked to one wall and shared the main room with their kitchen. Bellamy was almost disappointed that the same blank walls he stared at every night were the same as Nora's. With a councilman for a father and quarters on Alpha Station, he had expected something.. more.

"Bellamy?"

He realized that she had been waiting for a response, watching him, and hoped that she couldn't tell what he had been thinking. Nodding his head in agreement, he gave her what he hoped was a friendly smile. "That'd be great, you're doing me a huge favor," he confessed, eyes shifting as he felt uncomfortable under her gaze. "I guess I'll see you Thursday, then," he said before awkwardly turning and heading down the corridor towards Factory Station.

As he walked away, Nora watched him go, an unreadable expression on her face as she watched him leave. Waiting until he turned a corner and disappeared from view, she closed and locked the door to her quarters and threw herself onto her bed, pulling out her data pad. It was a cloned version of her father's, something that would get her into unthinkable trouble if he ever discovered what she had done. She quickly set to looking through the Ark's personnel records and searched for anyone born on the date 0110-2132.

AFTER

Four hours dragged by and Octavia Blake was starting to lose any grasp on her patience. When she had gotten up that morning, back sore from another night sleeping on the ground, she could never predicted how the day would transpire. In fact, every day since she had first stepped on Earth had been more unbelievable than the last. She was just about done with the little green planet and if Bellamy didn't hurry back from his day with Clarke, she would be tempted not to burn the whole place to the ground.

First, it had been the giant snake in the river that had tried to take her leg as its afternoon snack. Then it had been the loss and successive finding of Jasper Jordan and with that came the discovery of the Grounders. Plural became singular and suddenly there was Lincoln, a man who had both saved her life and tried to take the life of a friend, all in the same day. Her sweet brother, the one who used to read stories to her in her room under the floor, had tortured an unarmed man and become someone that she could no longer recognize.

In an attempt to save both Lincoln and anything left of the brother she once knew, Octavia had set the Grounder free. She'd knowing subjected a friend to hallucinogens, waited for the nuts to take effect, and freed Lincoln from his prison. She had set him free within their camp, trusting him to not murder each of them for the suffering they had caused. Earth had given Octavia few reasons to be impressed.

And in the sickest twist of events, her best friend, someone who wasn't even on the same forsaken planet as her, had been shot in front of her via live video feed. Her scream had attracted a number of campers, many of whom were still under the effects of the nuts, had found her desperately trying to get the attention of anyone on the monitor. The camera was still aimed where Nora's face had been only moments before and the angle didn't allow her to see much of what was going on. She screamed into the headset and banged on the monitor, hoping to draw someone's attention on the Ark.

Jasper had managed to calm her down long enough to understand that someone had been shot. After a confused medical tech explained over the video feed that mass hallucinations were incredibly rare and that he himself was indeed 'real', word quickly spread throughout camp that the victim was Nora Bishop, a councilman's daughter.

Few in camp knew her as she was a few years ahead of them in classes, but still the campers brought back any updates coming from the Ark as they continued to meet with their families. The Ark had moved the camera to a corner of the main deck of Command, allowing the Guard to protect their crime scene as they opened an official case.

Two hours ago, Miller had come up to her as she stood watch at the gate, waiting for Bellamy and Clarke to return. He had spoken with his dad, a Sergeant in the Guard, who informed him that Nora was entering emergency surgery to remove the bullet lodged in her chest. An hour later, a quiet girl named Harper came over and said that the surgery had complications but Dr. Griffin had managed to stabilize her vitals.

Jasper had been the one that delivered the most recent news, less hopeful than the previous – Nora suffered a seizure due a reaction to the anesthesia used and had slipped into a coma shortly after. While her vitals were still stable, the loss of blood combined with the stress of the seizure had left her weak and her recovery was not guaranteed. The coma was almost a blessing, as they were able to save the medical supplies that might have otherwise been needed, giving her doctors the ability to try and save her if her conditioned worsened.

A silver lining, he had said.

A number of people had come up to her at the gate, not with an update on Nora, but with summons for Octavia to speak with the Council. They had little information as to what had transpired in the chambers, only that officers in Command heard a gunshot and were forced to bypass the door's opening mechanism to manually enter the room. Inside Dr. Griffin had found Inspector Bishops on the floor near the conference table, bleeding from a gunshot wound two inches above her heart.

Octavia had seen what had followed, watched in horror as they took away her friend's unresponsive body to Med Bay for proper care. She'd left the tent silently, disappearing as Jasper and Miller continued to talk with the Ark, and headed for the wall, determined to wait for her brother to return. As it grew dark, she worried that he wouldn't make it back until the next morning.

She pulled her jacket closer as the temperature dropped alongside the setting sun. Deciding to give up her post in trade for a hot meal, she gave one last look out over the fence to hopes of seeing his mop of brown hair breaking through the trees before heading back into camp. A few campers shot her sympathetic glances as she walked by and she felt uncomfortable under their stares. She didn't want their pity, she wanted to kill the man that had hurt her friend.

A commotion near the center of camp made her quicken her pace and she rounded a row of tents to see twenty or so campers gathered around the fire.

"The grounder is gone!" Miller announced loudly, putting up his hands to quiet the crowd. More people slowly started to gather to listen and he looked unsure before continuing on. "He escaped while all of us were fucked up from those nuts, so let's do a head count and make sure he didn't take anyone with him, alright?"

People started to look frantically around and one another, searching the crowd for someone that they knew, someone that they cared for. Octavia looked around the sea of campers as well, bitter that the two people whose faces she wished to see most were both missing. One was experiencing what she probably thought was a good night's rest while the other was off gallivanting through the woods looking to be a hero. She hated herself a small bit for even looking around the crowd, she had trusted Lincoln enough to let him go, she had no reason to doubt him now.

Her attention drifted back to the rumblings of the crowd as she heard people start talking about going after Lincoln. Why couldn't they just let it go? They all started to join together, agreeing to go after the Grounder in order to continue living in safety. Just as the energy that had motivated the same group of people to hang one of their own started to course through the crowd, two voices broke through the chatter and silenced everyone.

She stared at the guns hanging over the shoulders of Clarke and her brother and remembered the surprise on Nora's face as she was shot through the chest. The heavy weapons thudded as the two dropped them to the ground, each explaining the proper use of them and the expected cooperation of the camp. People cheered as Bellamy and Clarke joined their hands and raised them victoriously, sharing a rare smile before they both looked out over the crowd. It took a few moments for Bellamy to find her, and fewer still to realize something was wrong as she slowly made her way towards him.

Pushing her way through the camp, she rubbed her hands on her thighs, wishing her hands would stop shaking. The overwhelming look of concern on his face made her want to cry because he had no idea what had happened. She hadn't told him that she was making a call request to Nora, he'd made it clear that he had nothing to say to anyone on the Ark. He wasn't even thinking about Nora. He thought that something had happened to her, his baby sister. How did she tell him that she was fine but his best friend had been shot?

He eyes searched hers as his hands came up to her face, gently turning it side to side as he checked her up and down for any visible injuries. She pushed him off with a shake of head, pushing down the well of emotion that rushed over her at her brother's tender actions. He was still Bell, underneath all that bullshit exterior he had been throwing up since landing on the ground.

"Bell, seriously, stop," she mumbled as he continued to check her and he shot her a questioning look. She spread out her arms widely, dramatically spinning once before quickly crossing her arms and chewing on her thumb. "It's not me," she said quietly.

His confusion grew as he looked around the camp, searching for whatever was amiss. "Did something happen here? You guys ate those nuts from the ration packs, didn't you?" Bellamy sighed and shifted his weight, looking tired as he frowned. "We should have been more careful, tried to remember some of what they taught us in school," he said. He motioned towards the camp as he continued, Octavia looking torn as she listened. "They depend on us, O. We gotta start looking out for each other, you know? Try and make this camp a place where we can really survive."

She briefly wondered what had happened on his little adventure with Clarke that had changed his tune so dramatically but Octavia had to tell him before she exploded. Taking a step forward, she reached out a shaking hand to grab her brother's arm, gaining his attention. "Bellamy, something happened, and I need you to listen to everything I say before you have any kind of reaction, okay?"

He looked at her and took in her frightened state and pleading gaze. Fear flashing across his face before it was replaced with an emotionless mask, nodding for her to continue. When she looked at him expectantly he rolled his eyes while clearing his throat, "I promise, alright? Now tell me what's going on, Octavia," he requested, taking a shallow breath as he waited, feeling his patience wavering. "Please."

A wall slammed into his chest, knocking his breath away as his world fell away and his sister gave him the news. "Someone shot Nora."

Dear fellow traveler, under the moon
I think I'm growing weary and I'm hoping you'll come soon
And if I see you in clean new clothes
I hope you hold the mirror up to show me what I chose