complicated | bellarke

twenty-seven | we're a team

CLARKE:

We run back to camp so any Grounder that could have been following us would have lost us.

"We have to go back and get Bellamy," I tell the group, panting, once we get back. We're standing in the middle of camp so everyone is watching us.

"I know," Octavia says, panting.

Raven runs up to us. "What happened?"

"We got Clarke, but not Bellamy," Finn says.

"Well, I can see that. Why?"

"There wasn't enough time," I tell her. I can feel the guilt tugging at my stomach. If anything happens to him...

"We need another plan," Octavia says. "They're not going to fall for some fake fire again, and there's no way we can sneak in."

"So force," Raven says.

"Raven..." I know what she's thinking.

"We go in there, point some guns and get Bellamy, no harm done," she says, shrugging.

"Raven, we are not doing that," Octavia says through gritted teeth.

"I don't want to, but what are our other options?" Raven asks.

"We could negotiate a trade," Finn contributes.

"What do we have to trade?" I ask.

"Guns," Finn says quietly.

"You want to give them guns?" I ask. "I don't want to go and threaten them with guns, but we're not giving them away. They're our only advantage."

"We wouldn't be giving them away. We'd be getting Bellamy, something I thought you wanted," Finn says, staring me down.

My voice is caught in my throat. "I- I do, more than anything, but he wouldn't want it like that. He knows we need the guns on our side."

"We could talk to them about peace," Octavia suggests. "Lincoln and I could talk to Anya and maybe the promise of no more prisoners or attacks-"

"They don't care about that," Raven says. "You told us how big their village was. And it's not the only one. They have no problem with war. They'd take us out easily. We have to strike first."

"You know that they'd retaliate even worse," I say. I turned to Octavia. "There's no way Lincoln can get one of us in again?"

"They don't trust him as much anymore, not since he came back from here," she replies.

"I don't know what we're going to do then," I say, tears forming up in my eyes a little bit. I stand up taller and ignore them. "Let's meet again later. Try and come up with something. We'll plan tonight and execute tomorrow morning, or possibly before."

The group nods but they don't look hopeful. I don't want to see them any longer, so I go to my tent. The second my head hits the pillow of my cot, the tears fell. It's all my fault. If I had stayed, and Bellamy had escaped, he would have come up with a plan to get me. But it's so hard to think when he's trapped there, when all of our decisions so far have been together. If we start a war, if I start a war without talking to him, I know I'll regret it.

It's not like I need his validation on every decision in my life. Most of the time I have my own opinion, but he is the one who helps me brainstorm when I can't think of anything. We're a team.

I lay in my bed, eyes on the ceiling of the tent, thinking of every possible approach we can take to get Bellamy out of there.

Distraction is the safest. But there is no way to execute that plan. They certainly didn't trust us before and now...

"Clarke?"

Finn is outside of my tent.

I wipe the tears off of my sleeve, sit up and clear my throat. "What?"

"Can I come in?"

I get up and go outside the tent. "What, Finn?"

"I know we're not exactly supposed to get along right now," he starts. "But I know you don't want to do this violently. And if you don't think negotiating is good, then we both know what that leaves." I nod. "We have to sneak in," he says.

"I know, but how?" I ask. "They already let a prisoner go, they're going to have extra security on Bellamy."

"If you can pretend to negotiate with them, just keep Anya occupied, I can get Bellamy," Finn says.

"How are you going to do that?"

"Do you trust me?"

I don't know how to answer. I want to, but if this goes wrong, I would never forgive myself, or Finn.

"What do I have to do?"

So I know I promised I would try to finish up the story in a timely matter, but I'm having trouble with writing this part of the story. I'm going to post as much as I can, and this story will probably end up being 30 chapters in total. Thank you for reading!