AN: Thanks for all the reviews and alerts, you guys are awesome! Please enjoy chapter six - keep mind that I've taken liberties with the timeline of the show.

CHAPTER SIX

you used to check the weather
now you stopped that
you used to look at time
now you stopped that
you used to wear red
now you wear white
what happens all the time
it happens all the time

Space Is Only Noise If You Can See – Nicolas Jaar

BEFORE

"Where is it you're going again?"

Nora shoved her data-pad into her bag and paused, wincing as her dad tore himself away from the television to look over his shoulder at her. His favorite show was playing, an old western that they played on the network every evening. She had hoped he wouldn't notice her leaving but had no such luck.

"I have an Argo-Sci project to do," she explained shortly, looking around their small apartment for her boots. She found them tucked under her bunk and pulled them out, avoiding her father's stare. "You know, one of those dumb Year Twelve projects they make us do."

"I know that, but where are you going," he asked, giving her his signature 'Dad-look' that didn't leave room for excuses. "Your mother will ask," he excused.

"Uh, my partner is that Bellamy Blake kid," she said in a hurry, slinging her bag across her body and waited impatiently by the door. She shifted from side to side, hoping that her father couldn't sense her distress. "I think we might go to the Archives or something," she lied with a small shrug.

Her father seemed satisfied with her answer and nodded his head. "Quiet kid, that Blake," he said, turning back to his black and white western film. He waved a hand as she let out a breath, "Home before curfew," he reminded, shaking his head as he heard his daughter say a hurried goodbye before the door slammed shut.

The walk to Factory Station was uneventful and before she knew, Nora was entering residential section B-17. Her heart beat fast as she came to a stop in front of a door with the plague 'BLAKE' secured above the key card reader. She stood, hand raised to knock, as it was suddenly opened within and she was face to face with a smiling older woman. Nora recognized her from around the Ark and knew that it was Bellamy's mother, Aurora. Her dark eyes and hair matched that of her son's, though the smile was something new.

"You must be Nora!" she exclaimed, opening the door wider to usher her in before glancing around the hall, closing the door behind them. She rested a hand on the young girl's shoulder, touch light with a mother's comfort. "Bellamy has told us all about you," she continued, guiding Nora further into their small apartment.

Speaking of, he was sitting uncomfortably on the bottom bunk of their bed, shooting an unreadable look in Nora's direction. She felt her stomach drop as she awkwardly stood by the door, wondering what it was she was supposed to do and opted to stay silent. When he had approached in her in the Mess Hall, three days after he had fled from her on Telsa, the last thing she had expect from him was for Bellamy Blake to invite her over for dinner.

It had been a simple exchange, he had barely said more than "Dinner tonight?" before once again fleeing her presence, leaving her alone to her morning rations. She didn't know what she thought would come of her nosiness, or her blunt confession that she knew about his sister, but she hadn't expected him to leave her with only more questions. An alert on her data-pad had notified her of his message with more details, and she'd arrived at the requested time. He didn't look happy to see her, so she had to imagine that the evening had been his mother's plan.

She noticed that their dining table was pushed against one side of the room, and she felt Aurora's eyes follow hers to the space in the middle of the floor. Bellamy stood up as she nodded to him, and he bent down to lift up a trap door, revealing a crawl space beneath their room. He reach out a hand and helped a small, dark haired girl up from the space and Nora let out a small gasp.

The girl turned to her, a nervous look on her face as she stood still, staring at her with wide eyes. She looked at Bellamy, waiting for his approval, and he slowly nodded his head down at her. Taking a step forward, she reached out a shaking hand to Nora, clutching her other hand to her side. "I'm Octavia," she said in a small voice.

Nora realized that the entire Blake family was watching her, waiting for her reaction, and that Octavia was slowly losing her nerve as her hand continued to shake. She realized that she was probably the first person that Octavia had ever met, outside her own family, and put on a soft smile as she reached out to shake her hand. "It's very nice to meet you, Octavia," she said, surprised as the small girl clutched to her hand, just shy of desperately. "I'm Nora."

A wide smile burst across Octavia's face before she shyly hid her face, taking a step behind Bellamy's protective form. He rested a hand on her shoulder, staring at Nora, as his mother busied herself in the small kitchen their apartment boasted. Slowly, everyone made their way around the table Aurora chatted enough for all them, bringing a plate of hot cakes to the table, sitting herself at the head.

Dinner passed mostly in silence, Octavia stealing looks across the table to Nora, seeming to think she would disappear if she looked away for too long. She longed to ask her millions of questions, to talk to anyone besides her mother and brother, but knew that it would be rude to overwhelm their guest. She ate her mother's potato cakes in restrained silence, wishing that anyone at the table would start a conversation. After listening to her mother mutter on about how to properly darn a pair of socks, Octavia couldn't stand it any longer.

"How old are you?" she blurted out, cutting through her mother's ramblings, and winced at the sharp pinch to her knee from her brother. She glared at him, sticking out her tongue before looking across the table to the strange girl she had been allowed to meet.

Nora looked surprised by the abrupt question and swallowed her mouthful of food before responding. "I'm eighteen, same as your brother," she replied, smiling when the young girl nodded and looked lost for a moment. She knew the answer already, Octavia's birthday being the start to everything, but felt like she needed to continue the conversation. "How old are you?"

"Twel-"

"You know how old she is," Bellamy cut in harshly, surprising everyone at the table with his tone. Octavia gave him a hurt look and instantly turned down to look at her plate in dismay. He let out a small sigh and shoved another forkful of food into his mouth as his mother glared at him. She turned to Nora, who was awkwardly moving her food on her plate, stomach too uneasy to eat the delicious smelling meal.

"What are you plans for after graduation?" Aurora asked politely, trying to keep the conversation civil. "Are you going to follow your father into a career in politics?"

At the mention of her father, Bellamy stabbed at his plate loudly, a dark look on his face. Nora did her best to ignore his attitude and shook her head, taking a small bite of her food. "Actually, I want to join the Guard-"

He let out a scoff and small laugh, shrinking under his mother's poisonous stare. Nora turned to look at him, annoyed with his behavior. "Is that funny to you or something?"

"Just can't imagine someone like you being in the Guard, that's all," he muttered, refusing to meet her gaze, shrugging slightly.

"What's that supposed to mean?" She frowned, not understanding his insinuation. Aurora watched the two of them carefully and Octavia looked amused by her brother's attitude.

"I mean, the Guard is hard work," he said slowly, meeting her gaze and holding it. "I can't imagine someone as privileged as yourself to be up to the task, that's all."

Her brow furrowed as she stared at him, truly taken aback by his feelings towards her. Sure, her father was a part of the council and they had moved from Agro to Alpha station when he had been elected, but Bellamy had seen her family's quarters – they weren't much different than the Blake's. He didn't know the first thing about her, who was he to say that she was privileged?

"Becoming a member of the Guard is the only dream I've ever had," she said, choosing to ignore him as she focused her attention instead to Octavia, who looked at her like she had found a new hero. "I want to be able to help people on the Ark, to make some sort of difference."

"I think that's a commendable dream, dear," Aurora cut her son off as she saw him open his mouth and passed him the plate of hot cakes with a pointed stare. He took the plate with an apologetic look, feeling ashamed with his behavior as he felt her gaze soften.

"I thought you wanted to join the Guard, Bells," Octavia said through a mouthful of food, face bright red as she realized she was being rude. She swallowed quickly and took a drink of water. It was Nora's turn to be surprised as he glared at his sister, silencing her with a small squeak.

"You do?" Nora asked, looking at him with a tilted, thoughtful look. She could imagine him in the uniform and had to admit that it wouldn't look bad on him. The sour face he seemed to always have would match the black uniforms perfectly, even. He only grunted in response and nodded his head, focusing back to his plate. "My dad could give you a recommendation if you need it," she offered, trying to keep her voice friendly.

"That would be fantastic!" Aurora said, face flashing a look of relief, as she thought of what a recommendation from Cole Bishop would mean. It would guarantee Bellamy's acceptance into the Academy, and could possibly even give him an opportunity for Officer training if he was fortunate enough.

"You can't be serious," Bellamy exclaimed to his mother, all pretenses of being polite were gone as his eyes flashed dangerously. "I don't need him to give me a reference, okay? We don't need to indebt ourselves to them!"

"You wouldn't owe him anything," Nora said slowly, looking at him in confusion. "He does it all the time, it's really not a big deal."

"I don't care," he argued back, eyes shooting to his sister for a split second before they hardened and met Nora's. "I don't need your help and I definitely don't need your father's!"

"Okay, seriously, what is your problem? You've been acting weird all night. You invited me," Nora reminded, tired of ignoring his obvious issue with her. He continued to glare at her his jaw clenched in restrained fury. She set out a frustrated sigh and pushed her chair back from the table. Shaking her head, she grabbed her bag off of the back of the chair and turned to Aurora, who looked confused by her son's behavior. "I think I should go," she muttered, pushing in her chair as she headed to the door. "Thank you for dinner, it was nice to meet you. Happy late birthday, Octavia," she said, giving the young girl a genuine smile.

She opened the door and checked the corridor for anyone passing by before letting herself out, careful not to show the interior of the Blake's apartment as she closed the door. She didn't make eye contact with anyone as she strode through Factory's corridors, muttering to herself at the rudeness of people when she heard her name being called. Annoyed that someone would choose then to bother her, she turned on her heel to face her pursuer. A look of obvious distaste came over her face as she saw Bellamy jogging up the corridor to her, coming to a hesitant stop in front of her. `

"What do you want, Blake?" She looked at him impatiently, and he winced under her annoyed gaze. He looked around the busy corridor and grabbed her by the arm, pushing her against the wall, and put himself between her and the moving people. Her eyes darted to where he still held her by the upper arm and met his with an eye brow raised.

"Look, I'm sorry for how I acted back there," he started, choosing to look anywhere than continue meeting her gaze. "You should come back, my mom would really appreciate it. We'd all appreciate it," he corrected, trying to emphasize that a third party would also like her to return.

In fact, said third party had been the one to send him chasing after her in the first place. While Octavia wished to be friends with Nora Bishop, that was not the reason that her brother sought after her. The entire reason behind his invitation to dinner had been to find out what she planned to do with her knowledge of Octavia. All that he had succeeded in doing over the course of dinner was piss her off and send her running, presumably to go straight home and tell her father about the illegal living under the Blake's quarters.

"Why did you even invite me over in the first place?" Nora asked, very much annoyed by the whole situation she had gotten herself caught in. She should have ignored the voice in the back of her head that had nagged to know about Bellamy Blake and his strange behavior. She should have known that it would have been more trouble than it was worth. "You obviously don't want to be friends, or have any interest in me at all, so is this just about making sure I keep my mouth shut?"

He had the decency to look somewhat ashamed, though she wasn't really all that surprised. His family had been what brought them together in the first place.

"Look," she said, putting a hand on his chest to push him a step back, and ducked under his arm, stepping out into the corridor. "I get that I don't understand what it's like to have a family like yours, but that doesn't mean that I don't understand the value of a human life, Blake," she said bitterly, feeling insulted that he thought so lowly of her. "I'm not a snitch, I won't tell anyone. Your secret is safe with me."

She could see it in his face that he didn't believe a word that she said and she let out a laugh, half throwing her hands in the air before shoving them into her pockets.

"Whatever," she muttered, turning to melt into the traffic of the corridor as a hand reached out to grab hers. Looking down at his hand on hers, her eyes traveled up to meet his and was taken aback by how vulnerable he looked, unsure even what he was doing as he kept her from leaving. His hand tightened for a moment before dropping hers, and he nodded his head, thinking to himself.

"Okay," he said again, eyes flicking to hold hers as he let out a short breath. "Okay, I trust you."

AFTER

"Just where do you think you're going?"

Nora flinched at the sharp tone behind her and slowly turned to see Dr. Griffin watching her from the doorway. With her clothes in arm, boots on her feet, and IV dangling abandoned by the bed, she appeared to be caught and tried to look less obvious. Snapping her fingers towards the bed, Abby motioned her back towards it but she stubbornly remained standing.

"The Exodus ship leaves in three days and I have to be on it," she said, setting her clothes onto the bed as she started to change. "I need you to clear me for the drop,"

Her left shoulder and chest were sore from the bullet wound but the pain was tolerable enough that she chose to by-pass the pain medication. She struggled to pull on her pants one-armed but managed to hop into them, using the upwards momentum to pull them up. The older woman looked impressed for a moment before laughing softly as Nora struggled to put on her black button-up shirt and resigned to help the wounded girl get dressed.

"I'd be a terrible doctor if I thought you were medically fit for the drop, Nora," she said seriously, helping her strap her holster across her back. With a small pat, she motioned her to turn around and held up a simple black sling, moving to put it around her shoulder. "But I know that even if everyone on this ship tried to stop you, you'd still be on that drop ship. Especially if your dad tried to stop you," she said with a small laugh.

Nora returned her smile and set out a sigh, settling the sling around her shoulder so that the pressure was less to her sore muscles. "I'm glad that we see eye to eye on this, Doc," she said, pulling on her boots and sheepishly waited for Abby to lean down and tie them for her. "Thought I was going to have bust my way out of here,"

"I was on my way to discharge you," Abby said, pulling the laces a little too tightly with a pointed look. Timing was everything, wasn't it? "And then send you up to CC, you've got a call waiting from the ground and then the Chancellor would like to talk to you about what happened," she trailed off, frowning as she was reminded of the issues the council still faced. Shaking her head, she tried to give Nora a reassuring smile, "But that can wait until after the call. You've got some worried people down on the ground," she said with a more genuine smile. Patting her on the knee, she stood up and motioned to the door. "There's an officer outside that will take you to CC,"

Nora shook her head at the comment and opened the door to see Sergeant Scott waiting patiently in the corridor. With a nod to Abby, she walked out into the corridor and headed for CC. Unlike her last journey, it was uneventful and most people didn't notice them as they passed by. A few recognized her and shot sympathetic looks towards her sling but she ignored them as they walked the short distance to CC.

The energy inside was less charged than the last, but she received many nods upon entering and Scott led her towards the Council Chambers. She hesitated only for a moment before remembering what her father had told her- that Shumway had killed himself, and she told herself there was nothing to fear. He couldn't shoot her, couldn't hurt her, he couldn't even look at her again. Pushing her unease down, she straightened her shoulders and crossed into the room, almost surprised that there wasn't even a stain where her body had been only days before.

"They had it cleaned," Scott said quietly, noticing her distant stare towards the ground, and led her through the room to a small room adjacent to the far wall.

Using his key card to open it, he motioned her inside. A small monitor was set up, screen facing away so that while she was sitting she would be able to see the door. She appreciated the strategic placement and nodded to him, walking into the room. He gave her a nod and used his key card to close the door and stood his post outside, under strict order by Councilman Bishop.

Inside, Nora took a moment to look around the small room and noted the storage boxes pushed to one side, leaving room enough to squeeze around to sit at the desk they had moved in. Not knowing who to expect to be on the other side of the screen, she took a deep breath and let it out before wedging her way behind the desk. She put on the headset with shaking hands, taking in one more deep breath before clicking on the monitor.

"Ground, do you read? This is Ark Station, over."

The image took a few seconds to load and she head his voice before she saw him, stomach dropping as her heart stopped. Static filled her ears for another second before the picture cleared and she could hear them bickering, obviously not aware that her end was receiving. She let out a laugh and reached out to touch the monitor, fingers brushing over his face as he glared at someone off screen.

"Ground, I repeat, do you read?"

Octavia looked at her brother in annoyance, punching him in the shoulder with a laugh as he looked at her in dramatic shock. He swatted out a hand, swatting her pony tail into her face as she continued to laugh. Nora watched, trying to get their attention just as a loud alarm rang loudly throughout the Ark. She pulled off the headset, looking up just as Scott opened the door, looking sorry.

"Solar flare," he said, glancing at the monitor sadly, as Nora's heart sank. "It'll have knocked out communications, for a couple of hours, tops. Don't' worry, they know we're coming."

His words only confirmed what she already knew and she walked from the room, trying not to let her disappointment show on her face. It didn't matter, tomorrow was Unity Day and two days after that the first Exodus Ship would drop to the surface, taking her with along with it. Three days and she would be on the Earth's surface, taking her first breath of fresh air. The solar flare was disappointing, sure, but she wanted more than a monitor, she wanted them. She could wait three more days.

See I want to write a story about two long lines
Two pretty lines that fall in love
Two little spaces they're filled with echoes
Did the lines ever intersect one another, at a moment in time?