John Murphy One Shots

9.0 With Me

Life on the ring wasn't easy. To be fair it seemed like no matter where you went life wasn't fair. Thrown into a cell on the ark, hunted by grounders, kidnapped for your blood by mountain men, what else could life throw at you?

Murphy. More specifically Murphy being a more difficult asshole than usual. He had been kicked out of Emori's room five months ago and ever since has been roaming the halls, doing nothing except waiting for someone to bring him his rations. That, someone, was usually you. No one else was willing to deal with him, so you were Murphy's designated caretaker.

"Murphy, come out, come out, wherever you are," you sang as you walked down the hall. Ducking you miss the fist that was coming towards your head from the shadowed hallway to your right. "You tried that attack a week ago, you're getting lazy," you say as Murphy emerges from the corridor.

"Or maybe you're just finally catching on," Murphy's hand reaches for the bowl but you pull it back before he has a chance to grab it. Raising your eyebrows, you tilt your head expectantly at him.

He heaves a big sigh out before saying, "Thank you for bringing me my food," and moves to grab it again. Like the first time, you move it out of his reach once more. "What do you want me to get on my knees and beg?" He angrily asks.

"You on your knees? Now that would be a lovely sight. But no, that's not what I want right now." You turn away from him and start walking towards the window that's overlooking earth.

"I want you to eat with me. This contains both of our rations," you look over your shoulder at him, and pat the space beside you.

His eyebrows pull together at your request but he makes his way over to you.

"What's the special occasion?" He grabs the spoon you extended to him once he was sitting next to you.

"No occasion, I just-" you cut yourself off and look down at the bottom of the window frame before running a hand through your hair, "miss you." Your eyes slide over to see his reaction. A calm expression is on his face, calculating like always. On the inside he's thinking about how much he wants that though, how he wants you to yearn for him.

"You can see me whenever you want to." His focus is entirely on you, he hasn't even glanced at the algae.

"Murphy, you know that's not what I mean. I want you to join us again." Your hand automatically goes to touch his arm, you stop it before it can make contact.

His eyes glance down to your hand. He shifts his gaze away, toward earth, toward the only green you've been able to see from up here. "Yeah, and I want to go back down to earth. Guess we all can't get what we want, huh."

He's derailing the conversation. Murphy was using his defense mechanisms, trying to push you away before he could get his hopes up. Hurt you before you could hurt him.

"You know how I feel about that," your tone is harsh, unforgiving. "You know I want to be down there too, but last time I checked neither of us can fly a damn ship." You take a deep breath, calming yourself down before you continue. "The only thing we can do is our jobs, the one you abandoned, and try to convince everyone to leave."

"I'm done trying to do my part. Being in a team was never really my thing." He changes positions so his back is against the wall, one leg bent and propped in front of him, the other hanging off the side of the sill. His focus is entirely on you.

"Oh, I'm aware. If you won't join all of us, then at least-" you cut yourself off once more. You don't know if you can say what you want, what you came here to ask of him. But he wants you to, in fact he needs you to, so he can feel like he belongs.

"At least what Y/N?"

"At least join me," you turn so your body is facing him, allowing him to read you. "I want you to move into my room with me." You keep your face neutral, you try to shield him from knowing how desperately you want this, how nervous you are. It took you two weeks to build up the courage to sit where you are now.

"Are you sure you want me in your bed?" He's doing the same to you. Trying to close himself up so you don't see through his cracks. Because if you did all of the work he had put into distancing himself from you, from keeping you at an arm's length would be thrown away. He would be vulnerable. And he was starting to question if that would really be a bad thing.

"I wouldn't want anyone else but you," it takes every ounce of willpower you have to speak that sentence without having your voice crack.

"Then what are we waiting for?" That was all he needed, to see you were just as wary as he is. He stands up and holds a hand out to you. You grab it before you can overthink what just happened or what's about to come. Once you're up he pulls you into him, as you stumble your hands find his chest while his move to your hips to steady you. You move your arms around him, enclosing him in a tight hug.

-

A week had passed and Emori was less than pleased by your offering to John. It seemed as if she still had feelings for him even though she would never admit it out loud. You could tell though. She talked to you less, interacted with you as little as possible, and was short when she did.

"Emori!" you call to her as you leave the mess hall once dinner was over.

"Y/N, is there something you need?" She gives you a smile, it's small and forced.

"Yeah! Well not exactly, I just- uh, I wanted to see if you wanted to come with me on my perimeter check," your hand goes to the back of your neck, scratching awkwardly at your skin. "I feel like we haven't had time to talk recently."

Emori looks down at her hands contemplating your request, "I think that would be nice," she says with a smile, a genuine one.

"After you," you motion for her to lead the way down the hallway.

You two had been walking for a few minutes, chatting idly. She was telling you about life on the ground before you had been sent down. In return, you tell her about the history of humans before the world ended the first time. Turning to her you stop your walk.

"I wanted to apologize Emori, I should have talked to you before I invited Murphy to stay with me. I was only thinking about him, and not about you," you look to see her tilted head and squinted eyes staring at you, "or how the team would feel about it."

"I understand why you didn't. You were just trying to look out for him," she grabs one of your hands in hers, "like I should have."

"Emori, you did what was best for you, and that's not a bad thing," you say pulling her into a hug. "Plus, I don't know how you dealt with John as long as you did. One week with him and I'm already going crazy." You both laugh as you continue down the hallway, everything feeling settled and in place once again.

-

As time moved on you somehow convinced the stubborn ass to join all of you once again. Even if Murphy no longer got to be the hero, he did get to find something he was good at besides making everyone's lives miserable. For once in your life, you had a family. Not just any family, but one that held more love for you than you'd received from your actual parents. You were home. Little did you know another one of your homes was about to be taken away.