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Realistically, he knew Murphy was in lock up. He knew what had happened to his father, and his mother, and what he’d done after that. Everyone did. But for some reason it never occurred to him that Murphy would be in the group of kids sent down to earth, which was stupid because they sent all of the bad kids down to earth, didn’t they? They were going to float them anyway, so why not kill them in a more creative, beneficial way? His mind had, first and foremost, been laser focused on Octavia, finding Octavia, protecting Octavia, just like it had been from the day she was born. He hadn’t been allowed to visit her in prison. They told him he’d been pardoned, that he hadn’t done anything wrong, but he knew they were punishing him anyway. Stripping him of his job at the guard, taking away his sister, floating his mother. The guilt was all the punishment he needed, and he was sure Jaha had planned it that way. Now, however, he’d been given a second chance. He could reunite what was left of his family, finally give Octavia the life she deserved above the ground, not beneath it. He just had to find her first. From the second Bellamy had gotten to the Exodus ship he’d been looking for her, scanning every brown-haired girl for his mother’s eyes, a crooked fringe, and a smile that was purely Octavia. He hadn’t found her, unsurprisingly, as most of the kids had already been loaded onto the ship by the time he’d managed to wrap up his prior engagement, but he had found him. John Murphy. He remembers him from before, when he was still a guard, and Octavia still lived under the floor, and his mother was still alive and handing out ‘favours’ to the head of the guard. John had been small, and pale, with striking eyes and a chip on his shoulder big enough to weigh down the Ark itself. This, of course, had been after his father had gotten floated and before the people of the Ark knew just how badly his mother had spiralled. Bellamy had thought he was stunning, in an objective way. He found he still did, actually, even though his chip had apparently grown three times in size.Bellamy lost sight of him rather quickly and soon after, the last of the kids had been loaded onto the ship, strapped in by guards who weren’t coming with them. Bellamy cinched the belt on a girl at the back, furthest from the door, making sure to be as casual and unassuming as he could be seeing as he was either about to die in a fiery blaze or see his sister again for the first time in years. The rest of the guard began to file out, not bothering with final checks to make sure everyone was properly secured, but Bellamy lingered.“Hey, you there!” Bellamy flinched. There was a third option of course, which included being noticed by the guards and floated after they discovered what he had done. “Y-Yes sir?” Bellamy called back cautiously to the guard still lingering inside the door. “You right to strap yourself in? I’d offer to do it for you but, you get it. You’re probably not going to make it to the ground anyway.”“Of course, sir. I completely understand.”Bellamy still hadn’t turned around fully. He couldn’t recognise the man’s voice by sound alone, but that didn’t mean the man wouldn’t recognise him. His family had been the talk of the Ark the day Octavia was identified, and being the only Blake left in the community garnered him some attention. “Alright. You’re a braver man than me for taking this mission. We will meet again.” He replied, before turning and exiting the ship.“We will meet again.” Bellamy muttered, making his way over to the only remaining seat. He hadn’t seen Octavia yet, but there was only 100 of them. He’d find her soon enough. *** The trip back to earth had been… rough, to say the least. Two kids had died on the way down because they were stupid, but they weren’t Octavia or anyone else Bellamy knew, so they didn’t matter. Especially not when he found her.Octavia had grown since he last saw her, of course she had, but that didn’t mean he was ready for it. She’d grown out her fringe, the one he used to cut for her because she insisted that without it she looked too much like their mother, and she’d gotten taller too. Maybe a little more guarded, but then she had spent time in prison. Well, juvenile detention but still surrounded by criminals. Her eyes where still the same, though, and her smile was brighter then he’d ever remembered seeing it, especially when she stepped outside, into the sun and onto the dirt. The first person on the ground in a hundred years. He couldn’t help but smile when she took her first real breath of fresh air, and he couldn’t help but laugh when she followed it with:“We’re back, bitches!” Just like that, the flood gates had opened and the other kids where flowing out of the
Exodus ship in a steady stream, taking Bellamy with them. All around them people were laughing and shouting and running and just being kids, something they hadn’t gotten to be in years. Bellamy watched Octavia grab the hands of a girl in front of her and spin, both of them laughing giddily, and couldn’t help but think that despite everything he’d sacrificed, this right here definitely made it all worth it.*** Trying to set up a camp with only 98 delinquents to help was like herding cats. Bellamy had never seen a cat, let alone tried to herd one, but the animal studies class everyone had been made to take in school gave the impression it would be very difficult. Being the eldest and the only person with any idea of what to do, Bellamy managed to take control pretty quickly. He had people setting up tents around the Exodus ship in no time, though with the enthusiasm of teenagers who’d rather being doing more exciting things, the task itself was taking time. When the site began looking more like a camp and less like an empty clearing, Bellamy was approached by a blonde girl with an air of importance about her, followed closely by Jaha Jr. and the spacewalker kid. Clarke Griffin, she told him, and he vaguely remembers her from the Ark. Her parents had been upper class, her mother one of the bigshot doctors up there and her father, a scientist. He remembers the shock when scientist Dr Griffin had suddenly been floated and his daughter thrown in jail with no real reason given. ‘Treason’ they’d said, but that could mean anything.“We need to get to Mt. Weather.” She said, urgency clear in her voice. They’d only been on the ground for a few hours. What could they possibly need right now that couldn’t be found in the woods around them? At least, that was what Bellamy thought. What he said, however, was:“What?”Jaha released an annoyed exhale before moving to stand beside Clarke and unfolding a map. Bellamy didn’t miss the side-eye Clarke gave him before taking a purposeful step in the other direction.“Mt. Weather. It was a base left over from when people still inhabited the Earth. I guess it was supposed to be a bunker to protect people from the radiation, but as far as we know, no-one ever made it there. It should still be stocked with non-perishable food, weapons, maybe a sprig, or something to help us get clean water. My dad – ”Jaha was interrupted by a snarl.“Don’t think for a second that just because you were sent down here to die with the rest of us that that means you forgiven and we’ll listen to you. Your dad is the reason why most of us only have one parent left to mourn us, and the rest of us have none,” John Murphy spat out from somewhere to Bellamy’s left. He watched Jaha take a breath before turning to John calmly. Ever the diplomat. He really was his father’s son.“This isn’t about what my father did or didn’t do on the Ark. He was doing what he had to. But regardless of that, right know we need food and we need water, and he was nice enough to draw us a map of exactly where we could find it,” Jaha said.John scoffed. “Nice enough? It was his orders that condemned us, mini Chancellor. That wasn’t nice, it was a beg for forgiveness to his only son. Don’t think for a second that if you weren’t here we’d still have a step by step guide to safety.”Bellamy glanced over at him and found himself meeting cold blue eyes. John looked away immediately, spun on his heel and left. Odd, but he didn’t have time to linger. Clarke, Jaha, and spacewalker kid were still taking turns pitching Mt. Weather to him, and he knew he wasn’t going to win. “Fine,” he said, cutting off Clarke mid-sentence. “You can go, and your space cadet over there –”“Finn”“ – whatever, can go with you, but Jaha stays here. If you do find food we can't have you running off without sharing. Fair?”“Yep, I’m totally fine with that,” Clarke replied, shooting a glare at Jaha, “We’ll be back tomorrow with food. Come on Finn, we have to leave, now.”“Do you really think the two of you can carry enough food for 100 people?” Jaha shouted.Finn looked around quickly before grabbing the two closest people. “Well, four of us now. We should be fine Wells, thanks for the concern but duty calls, you know?”He, Clarke and the other two made it two more steps before Octavia came jogging over.“Hey Bell, what’s – wait, are they leaving the camp? Count me the hell in!” Bellamy saw her face light up at the idea of exploring but he couldn’t let her go.“O, no, it’s too dangerous. We don’t know what’s out there yet. I can't go with them, and I can't protect you if you do. I need you to stay here at camp,” he said.“Bellamy, you can't keep me here. I love you, but you don’t own me. I need to do something. I'm going,” she said before jogging towards where Clarke, Finn and the others were taking a moment to fashion some bags out of the dropship’s parachute.“O, wait,” he shouted, causing her to stop, “I can't let you put yourself in danger like this. Do you trust me?” he asked.“Of course,” she replied immediately, “Do you trust me?”“I – yes. I do,” he sighed.She flashed him a brilliant smile and ran back over to pull him into a quick hug before chasing after to exploration group with a ‘Hey, wait for me!’Bellamy squished down his nerves and as soon as the group had passed the trees, he turned back to the people, his people now, and began telling them everything wrong with their tents.*** The next time Bellamy saw John was later that afternoon when a quick survey around the camp founding him breaking up a little fight between John and Jaha.“If you’re gonna kill someone, it’s probably not best to announce it.” Bellamy said, looking over the message Murphy had carved into a hunk of metal.John didn’t comment, instead choosing to ask, “You’re not really a member of the guard, are you?”Bellamy snorted, shaking his head slightly. “Not for a while.”“Hmm,” John hummed, looking him up and down. “So, what makes a guy like you want to take a one way trip to a death world with a bunch of criminal kids?”“My sister,” he said shortly.“Ah yes, the girl under the floor, she must be loving all of this space. How is she these days?” The set of John’s jaw screamed aggression, but the look in his eyes searched for a real answer. A defence mechanism, probably. Bellamy could respect that. “That’s the first person on the ground in a century to you,” he laughed easily, “and she’s fine. Not injured in the landing. How are you?”Shock passed over his features before they settled once more into indifference. “What’s it to you? You wanna play doctor with me, sir?” John asked mockingly, a smirk settling over his face. Bellamy felt warm. It was probably just the weather.“No, I want to know because its gonna hurt when we take these arm bands off, and there’s no need to add injuries if someone’s already hurt.”“Why would we take the wristband off?”“You wanna help the people up top?”“Of course not,” John scoffed.“Well your wristband sends your vitals up to the Ark, so they know who’s alive. If they think we all died then they’re not coming down here in two months’ time, are they?”“No, I guess not. You know how to get them off?”“Not yet but I'm glad you agree. You’re a smart guy, John,” Bellamy shot him a small smile, “I'm gonna need someone like you to help me run this camp.”“How’d you know my name?” he asked, suddenly cautious.Bellamy laughed when his saw his whole body tense up. “I said I hadn’t been a guard for a while, not that I’d never been one.”“Well, I go by Murphy now, but sure, sign me the fuck up.”