The Ruling - Bellamy Blake

13. Unity Day

I open my eyes and look over to see Bellamy asleep on the couch next to me.
"Bell?" I ask sitting up. I feel a sharp pain in my leg, remembering getting shot.

Bellamy sits up looking at me.
"Hey, how are you feeling?" He asks moving over to my side.
"Like it's a great time to talk to Jaha." I smile.
"It's the middle of the night, Nov. We can talk to him once it's morning and you're healed." He says.
"You're not putting this off just because I'm injured. First thing tomorrow morning." I say.
"You're incredibly stubborn."
"Maybe." I whisper.
"Get some rest we'll talk in the morning." He says placing a gentle hand on my shoulder as I lay back down.

In the morning Bellamy and I get told Jaha's waiting to talk to us. With the help of Bellamy I walk into the tent and we both put on our headpieces.

"Mr. Blake, I've wanted to talk to you for some time now." Jaha says walking into the frame.
"Before you do, I'd like to say something. When we were sent down here, you sent us to die. But most of us are still alive and that is because of Bellamy. We wouldn't be here without him. He's one of us and he deserves to be pardoned of his crimes just like the rest of us have been promised." I say fully meaning every word.
"Nova, I appreciate your point of view but it's not that simple." Jaha says.
"It is if you wanna know who in the Ark wants you dead." Bellamy says. Jaha goes quiet and Bellamy and I share a glance. I reach under the table and grab his hand.

"Bellamy Blake, you're pardoned for your crimes. Now, tell me who gave you that gun."
"Shumway. He told me if I killed you, I'd be able to protect my sister."
"Thank you." Jaha says.
"No, thank you." Bellamy says.

He ends the call and I look over at Bellamy before throwing my arms over his shoulders.
"You did it!" I yell as he pulls my body into the hug.
"We did it." He corrects smiling at me.

"Now back to resting." He says before leading me back to my tent.

After days of being bedridden I finally convinced Clarke and Bellamy that I was good enough to leave.

I'm celebrating Unity Day with Jasper and Monty and see Bellamy leaning against a tree. I sigh before I walk over to him, this is a celebration he shouldn't be on guard duty right now.
"Why aren't you having fun?" I ask.
"I'll have my fun when the grounders come." He says.
"Boring." I say laughing. "Come on, one drink. You owe me for saving your life." He laughs softly.
"Fine. Just one." He says. I grab his arm and lead him to Jasper.

"Two drinks please." I laugh.
"Looks like all it took was the queen to get the king to party." Jasper laughs, handing us both drinks. I laugh at the terms. Bellamy and I drink while continuing to just walk and talk.

"You look happy." He says looking down at me, his eyes gentle.
"I am." I smile.
"Good. I'm happy too."
"I know. You're smiling." I say admiring his smile. He laughs softly.

"Hey, guys." Clarke says running over to us.
"Having fun?" I ask.
"I need to talk to you guys. Finn's set up a meeting with the grounders. I'm leaving to go talk to them."
"What?" I ask feeling her words start to sober me up.
"Because you figure that impaling people on spears is code for let's be friends?" Bellamy asks.
"I think it might be worth a shot. I mean we do have to live with these people."
"They're not going to go for it." I say.
"That's why I'm here. I want you two to follow us, be our backup."
"Does Finn know?" I ask. She shakes her head.
"Bring guns." She says. We'd be idiots not to.

"I'll go get Jasper, you get the guns." He says. I nod.
"Meet in 5." I say.

I go to the gate and see Bellamy with Jasper and Raven. I hand them the guns and Bellamy hands me ammo.
"Let's go."

We start walking and see the nuts that Clarke dropped for us to follow.
"Keep your eyes open."

We keep walking until the sun comes up and we walk below a bridge where we see Clarke and Finn. Octavia isn't far infront of them.
"What's Octavia doing here?" Jasper asks. We watch the grounder that escaped run to them and he hugs her. "Oh." He mutters.
"I guess we know how he got away." Raven says.

Bellamy lifts the gun up pointing towards Octavia and the grounder.
"Bell, look." I say seeing horses and grounders come to the bridge. I wish we had horses, I'm tired of walking everywhere.

I watch through my gun and see one of the grounders get off her horse and meet Clarke in the middle. They start talking and she looks mad.
"Grounder princess looks pissed." I say.
"Ours has that effect." Bellamy says.

"What I don't get, is why Finn had Clarke go. I know why he didn't ask you Bellamy, but why not Nova? The people listen to you more than Clarke." Jasper says. I look over at Raven who looks down.
"Because it's Clarke." She says softly. Everyone can see that Finn and Clarke have something going on, but Raven only came down for Finn, so it's a messy situation.

"Oh no. This is bad." Jasper says looking into the trees.
"What are you talking about?" Bellamy asks. I look through my rifle into the trees and see grounders up there. They have their own kinds of weapons.
"In the trees. Look." I say quickly.
"I don't see anything." Bellamy says.

"They're gonna shoot! Clarke, run!" Jasper yells running out of hiding. He starts shooting into the air. Arrows start getting fired and I shoot one of the grounders in the tree. He falls. I see another about to shoot and I shoot him first.

"Let's go!" Bellamy yells. I run after him following the group.

We don't stop running until we get back to camp.
"You got something to say?" Bellamy asks Finn who's staring at him.
"Yeah. I told you no guns!" He says turning to Clarke.
"I told you we couldn't trust the grounders. I was right." She says.
"Why didn't you tell me what you were up to?" Raven asks looking at Finn.
"I tried, but you were too busy making bullets for your gun."
"You're lucky she brought that!" I yell jumping to her defense. There's no way he prefers we didn't have the guns, that's stupid.
"They came there to kill you, Finn."
"You don't know that. Jasper fired the first shot!"
"You ruined everything." Octavia says to Jasper before running off.
"I saved you!" He yells after her before leaving too.

"Well if we weren't at war already, we sure as hell are now." Finn says. I look up at Bellamy trying to read his reaction. "You didn't have to trust the grounders. You just had to trust me." He says to Clarke. My eyes dart to Raven as she follows Finn back inside.

I turn to do so as well but hear an explosion. We all turn and see a ship coming down.
"The Exodus ship?" Bellamy asks.
"Your mom's early." I say and Clarke laughs.

"Wait. Too fast. No parachute? Somethings wrong." Clarke says quickly while staring at the sky. I turn to continue looking, and it does seem to be going too fast. We watch it hit earth and blow up.

Clarke collapses at my feet and I kneel down and hug her.
"I'm so sorry." I say as she starts to sob. Her mom was in that ship.
"We'll go at first light." Bellamy says and I nod to him.