Taming Chaos // J.M // The 100

Chapter 74

Ethan wakes in another room.

It's dimly lit, cold and definitely not the bunker. Worst of all, there's no Murphy.

He snaps up from the bed, swaddled in two blankets.

Ethan has to stay calm. He knows this.

But that doesn't stop the immediate instinct to slip from the sheets and go for the door, "Hey! Anybody out there? Murphy!" He hits the door again with all he's got, ramming his shoulder hard against metal.

He thought they were free. He saw the stars. He knows he went back down for Murphy.

Ethan notices the shadow before anything, scrambling backwards in time for the door to unlatch and swing open.

"Jaha?" Ethan breathes out.

The anger is choking him all of a sudden. He doesn't breathe. It comes out all at once, in a sickening dizziness.

"You son of a bitch!" He shoves him back out the door.

In surprising retrieve, Jaha fixes his stance to block the entrance. When Ethan's next attempt is to shoulder into him, there's an immediate switch in the ex-chancellor's demeanour.

Jaha catches his arms in a reflex Ethan hasn't ever seen from him. With a yank and a twist, his back is flush against the chest of a man he hated with a fiery passion.

The blank expression but scarily quick actions. Jaha is. . . different.

Breathing hard, Ethan plants his feet to remain standing. The warmth he can feel against his back is sickening him. "You- you-" he jerks around to make it difficult, "You fucking asshole, you never came back for us, you -" it struggles to make sense in his head. "What the hell did you do to Murphy?"

Jaha smiles. With a shove, he releases Ethan back into the room, "He's still in the bunker."

Ethan catches himself against the bed, sucking in a deep breath. "Why?" Words sharp, he glares across the room, "Bring him here."

Jaha holds up a placating hand, "First, let us talk."

Murphy was right. About everything. The things he'd pieced together just from the recordings, were painfully true.

Lorelai had sent Ethan into hell for a simulation.

The City of Light? It was just codes in a system. 

If he ever made it back to camp, he'd have nothing to show for the trip. Because it was all useless. Everything they did, for nothing.

The only reward was Murphy. 

And he wasn't even here.

Ethan's already going crazy without the witty boy within his sights.

Neither of them could imagine spending their life alone in the bunker. The only way they survived was through each other.

Murphy once asked what he was, if not the bad guy. 

But he doesn't realise he's become Ethan's salvation.

"You're crazy." He whispers, the remains of Jaha's tirade bouncing from wall to wall.

A figure appears in the corner of his vision. "Thelonius isn't lying, Ethan."

Ethan jumps out of his skin, flinching into Jaha and then away from Jaha because float him for everything he's done - 

The red dress clues him in.