undertow | bellamy blake (book one)

21 | another end

The walk back to camp felt way too long. After they had kissed, it was pretty much like it hadn't happened. They had just continued with their mission by collecting all the guns and a few blankets and moved on from the depot. Neither of them said anything about it, but they were both thinking about it. There was no denying that it meant something. After all, Bellamy had used it as his way of telling her that he wasn't going anywhere. She had allowed herself to be vulnerable with him, so he was going to do the same for her. But at the same time, it was the moment that called for that vulnerability. Now that it was over, they were going to get back to what they had to do and could figure it out later.

As they were entering the camp, Miller started screaming.

"He's gone. The Grounder is gone!" A small frenzy broke out in camp at the thought of the Grounder having escaped when they were all hallucinating. One simple mishap could have caused them a lot.

"What if he brings other Grounders back?"

"He'll kill us all."

"Or worse!" Too many worries were being thrown around and it was causing the teenagers to get more riled up. Before they could really go into a panic, Bellamy stepped forward.

"Let the Grounders come! We've been afraid of them for far too long, and why? Because of their knives and spears? I don't know about you, I'm tired of being afraid!" He yelled. Bellamy had a way of hyping them up and that was good, but Jovie needed them to realize that these were dangerous guns and they couldn't just fool around without thinking of what could happen.

"These are weapons, not toys," she said sternly, looking around at each delinquent to make them see that this was a serious thing.

"And we have to be prepared to give them up to the guard when the dropships come, but until then, they're gonna help keep us safe," Clarke added, standing next to Bellamy and Jovie.

"And there are plenty more where these came from. Tomorrow we start training, and if the Grounders come, we're gonna be ready to fight," Bellamy ended. Jovie watched him walk towards Octavia who was standing on the outskirts of the camp, and he put a blanket over her shoulders. She trailed behind, feeling like she needed to talk to her friend who she hadn't seen too much of lately. She felt bad that she was getting so wrapped up in everything to even think about how Octavia was doing.

"I don't expect you to forgive me, but you'll have to find a way to live with me because I'm not going anywhere," she heard Bellamy say to his sister. Jovie wanted to let out a sigh of relief hearing those words. He was so close to just abandoning them, so the fact that he was here right now and was here to stay was a huge relief.

"Bellamy, it's time," Clarke told him. He had finally agreed to talk to Jaha in attempts to resolve his situation. He nodded his head in acknowledgement before looking back at Octavia.

"Grounder escaping, was that you?" He asked.

"I had nothing to do with it," she said. Jovie wanted to let out a short laugh. She had a strong feeling that Octavia had something to do with it. Bellamy didn't look quite convinced, but he didn't say anything. "Thanks for the blanket." On that note, Bellamy walked off to go to the meeting with Clarke and Jaha. When he walked past Jovie he gave her a short nod and she returned it. "You care about him, don't you?" Jovie's eyes whipped over to see Octavia staring at her. She didn't know what to say. She did care about him, but she was scared to say it out loud. Telling him he had to stay was one thing, but saying it to Octavia was something else. It meant that it was true. Jovie's silence gave Octavia all the answer she needed. "Well, he cares about you too." Jovie could feel her cheeks burn. Monty had picked up on this too, so was this just a common realization among the camp?

"Just like you care about the Grounder," Jovie decided to say, hoping it would be able to change the attention from her to Octavia. "I know you helped him." Octavia tried to keep a poker face, but that was Jovie's specialty. She could see past the girl's guard. Jovie walked over to Octavia. "And I'm glad you did." Octavia's straight face faltered. She had no reason to try to convince Jovie otherwise. She already knew that Octavia cared about him, and besides, Jovie had tried to stop them from torturing him from the start. Things changed when Finn's life was on the line, but Jovie never wanted the Grounder to get hurt. Octavia knew that.

"He saved my life," Octavia said.

"He saved mine too," Jovie reminded her. She paused to think about the village that she had been watching. It was comprised of mostly children and the elderly. She had seen the way they cared about each other. The Grounders were just trying to protect themselves, just like the teenagers were. But why did it have to come to that? Couldn't they coexist? "O, I've been sneaking out, watching the Grounders. They're not all bad. There are children, families." Octavia straightened up at this news. Octavia was aware that Jovie had stolen one of their daggers and had snuck out of camp to try to find her brother, but she didn't know the extent of it, that Jovie had been doing this multiple times.

"We can't let them kill them. Or Lincoln," Octavia said.

"He told you his name?" Jovie asked. "He speaks English?" Octavia nodded her head. Jovie was the only person she trusted to tell this to. Jovie wouldn't tell anyone. Otherwise, she wouldn't be coming to Octavia to try to help her. "Okay, we need to be smart about this. Bellamy would never believe that there is another end to this."

"That's why we're gonna have to show him there is."