Grounders(#wattys2016)

chapter 25 Misguided

Octavia POV

It was the first real snowfall of the year. Bellamy and Lincoln were at work so Clarke and I decided to have a girls day.

We invited Indra, Echo and Raven too. We wanted to celebrate her recent engagement to Wick.

Ok! So I didn't really want to invite Echo but Clarke said she wanted to spend some time with her outside of work to get to know her better. I can't really argue the logic behind this.

So this is how I came to be in a car with Clarke, Echo and her little sister Nylah. I sighed inwardly, this was shaping up to be a really long day...

Echo POV

I was a little surprised to be invited on this girls day, I mean I had only been working at Grounders for barely a month. Clarke is obviously close to the people she works with and she's been a great boss to me. This makes it really hard to continue spying on her for Emerson and his boss. I really had no choice though, I had to protect my sister and if Emerson followed through on his threats, I could end up in jail or worse and Nylah would be left all alone. She had no one else and I know Emerson would go after her. He was just that vile! No, I had no choice but to follow through and hope that Clarke and Raven would figure out what was going on before it was too late, just not my part in it.

Maybe I could tip them off somehow? Hmmmm it could work...

"Earth to Echo?"

I shook my head to bring myself back to the present.

"Y..yes?" I stammered, realizing Clarke had been trying to get my attention for a few minutes.

"Were you born here in Chicago?" Clarke repeated her question with a small smile.

"No. Suburbs. We moved here when I was pretty young and we've been here ever since." I sighed inwardly as the questions started. Seemingly innocent on the surface but also probing for information. The message to me was clear.

Clarke may not have fired me yet but that didn't mean she trusted me either. Help came from an unexpected source as my sister and Octavia started chattering away about dance and further questions were forgotten.

Soon we were at the rink and the girls were on the ice, I was still lacing up my skates when someone sat down beside me and knocked into my side.

"Hey!" The blood drained from my face as I looked into Emerson's eyes.

"Hello Echo. The boss wants to see you tonight."

"You can't be here!" I hissed. "Are you trying to blow my cover?"

"I'm going, just know the boss isn't happy. 10 tonight. Don't. Be. Late. Oh, and Echo?"

"Yeah?"

"You better have some information to bring with you. The boss isn't as patient as I am." He replied with an evil smirk and melted into the crowd.

As I stared off in the direction he disappeared Raven plopped down next to me with her skates and I startled about 5 feet in the air.

"Whoa girl! Calm down." She chuckled before getting a look at my face. "Hey, are you ok?"

I shook myself. "Yeah, I just thought I saw someone I knew."

"I'm guessing an ex huh?" She raised an eyebrow in sympathy.

"What makes you say that?"

"Cuz you don't look too happy. Evil exes are just roadkill anyway. Trust me Clarke and I know all about evil exes." She winked. "You can always do better."

My heart clenched listening to her try to cheer me up. Little did she know I don't deserve her help. As we both walked over to the Ice to join the others I grabbed her elbow.

"Raven?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks" I said softly, wishing I could be honest with her.

"For?"

"For being a friend to me and I know we haven't known each other long but can I ask a favor?"

"Sure, what do you need?"

"I have somewhere to be later and I don't want my sister to be alone at the apartment. Do you think she could stay with you tonight?"

Raven looked at me curiosly, I hoped I had been able to keep the worry out of my voice. "Sure. But isn't she a little old for a babysitter?" Raven asked skeptically.

"Probably" I forced a smile, "but we live in a really rough part of town..."

"Say no more. Now let's skate." She laughed and dragged me on the ice with her.

~~~~~

***Time lapse***

"Why do I have to stay with Raven? I don't need a sitter!" Nylah complained.

"Please Nylah! I'm trying to protect you. Protect us! I can't do that if I'm worried about you.!

She rolled her eyes. "Fine. I'll grab my stuff" She paused. "Should I be worried about you?" She asked uncertainly.

"No. I'll be fine." I forced a smile

In reality I wasn't so sure...

A/N

First I want to apologize for taking sooo long to update this. I had a little writers block plus Season 3 is just too stressful you know? Anyway I'm back and I hope you all are still interested in my story.