undertow | bellamy blake (book one)

16 | losing him

As soon as the rest of them left to go hunt for Octavia, Jovie slid off the table. She hissed as she put a bit too much pressure on her bad leg, gripping onto the table to steady herself. Once the pain subdued enough, she limped out of the drop ship to find something for her to do.

"Hey, Clarke said to take it easy, remember?" Monty said, rushing over to the blonde as he saw her making her way towards the gate.

"Yeah, I was just going to go help Miller guard." She said like it was no big deal, like she hadn't just barely survived getting attacked by a Grounder.

"Which requires standing... and you only have one good leg right now," he said. "You could help me sort through the nuts and berries to make portions for everyone!" Jovie rolled her eyes but smiled at the boy's attempt to get her to give in.

"No offense, Monty, but I think I'd rather stab myself in my other leg than do that," she told him. "I'm more of a hunter than a gatherer, in case you have noticed."

"C'mon, it could be fun! And it'll give us some time to bond," he joked, nudging her shoulder with his. Realizing he wasn't going to give up, she sighed.

"Only 'cause I want to steal some food in the process," she said. He laughed and nodded his head, leading the way to where they kept all the food.

"You know you probably shouldn't even really be walking on that leg in the first place," he pointed out. She shrugged. Yes, her leg felt like it was on fire each time she put too much pressure on it, but she was planning on just ignoring that. The Grounders wouldn't just give up if they got wounded like her, they would keep on fighting in battle. She would learn to push through the pain, just like they did.

"Sitting around doing nothing isn't really my style," she said.

"Yeah, I definitely got that," he said. She smirked, throwing a berry into her mouth before plopping down next to Monty. "So, what even happened?"

"I got a little... reckless," Jovie said, remembering the way she attacked that Grounder without thinking about the fact that she would actually have to fight him. Learning the way they fought was one thing, but actually having to fight was another. Besides, she had only been watching them for a couple of days or so, while they've been training their whole life. "But I got lucky too. I don't know why, but one of them stopped the other from killing me. He saved my life."

Monty stared at her in slight disbelief, as if it were impossible for the Grounders to have empathy or believe in valuing life. She couldn't blame him though. All the delinquents knew was the violence that the Grounders brought. They hadn't seen the way they have families, the way they can care for each other when sick or injured. They hadn't seen the other side of them like Jovie had. She wasn't making excuses for what the Grounders were doing, but she just realized that they were protecting their land and each other, just like the delinquents were. They were all human after all. They were just living in a fucked up world.

"How mad was Bellamy?" Monty asked. "I'm sure he was pissed." Jovie looked over at him, wondering why he was bringing this up.

"Yeah, he was pretty pissed," she said. She focused her attention back on separating the nuts and berries into separate piles, wanting to keep herself preoccupied. "But that's just because I disobeyed him. He told me not to go back out there by myself and I did anyway."

"I don't know. When Miller told him they found you how they did, he seemed really worried," Monty said. "Scared even." Jovie paused and Monty noticed. "He's rather protective over you," Monty noted, looking over at her curiously. Jovie went back to sorting, trying to act like his words didn't mean anything to her, even though she felt her stomach flutter.