Guiltless Sin || John Murphy

39

'Hey,' He greeted. 

'Hey,' She whispered. 

His gaze fell to Harriet before he quickly crouched down in front of the woman, smiling softly as he wipe a stripe of mud from her cheek. 

'How long?' He asked. 

'Could be weeks,' She muttered; 'She had her pain taken and given back to her. Her mind's completely shut down, it'll be a waiting game.'

Murphy nodded, pushing himself up to stand before leaning forward to kiss her forehead. 

'Do you want me to do your hair?' He smirked. 

'The last time you did my hair, I had to cut half of it off because you knotted it so bad,' She sent him a mocking look. 

'I was six.'

'Exactly.'

'Come on. Let me try, can't look as bad as it already does.'

She scoffed, flipping him off as he moved to squeeze between her and the fence. Byrd shivered lightly as his fingers raked through her knotted hair, the braids her mother had done long gone. He pulled it up into a pony tail, grabbing from rope that hung from the fence to tie it up. He tugged it tighter, before moving out from behind her; smiling proudly. 

'So?' He queried. 

'It'll do,' She shrugged. 

'It'll do? It looks amazing.'

She rolled her eyes, looking up when Jaha moved into her line of vision; walking toward a sobbing woman. 

'Let me help you, please,' He muttered as he crouched down in front of her, only to have her spit in his face. 

'It's good to see you're making friends,' Murphy called.

'Hello, John. Byrd. Glad to see you made it down. I could use some help with the dead.'

'Go float yourself. These dead are on you, too, Chancellor.'

He grabbed Byrd's hand, but she pulled back reluctantly; shaking her head. 

'Come meet Emori, properly,' He suggested. 

She cocked a brow at him, 'I can't leave her.'

'Byrd,' A voice came from behind her.

She turned to find two guards from Arkadia walking toward her with a stretcher between them, cocking her head to the side. 

'Abby sent us,' The man stated; 'Skaikru has been forbidden to leave the city, but we're trying to get as many out as we can. She wants your mother among them.'

'You drop her, I'll kill you,' She spat. 

'Yes, ma'am.'

The two men moved carefully to lift Harriet from the ground, placing her on the stretcher before they walked away with her. Murphy slipped his hand into her hand, leading her away and toward Emori as she pick pocketed a dead man. 

'Hey, what are you doing?' Murphy called. 

'Stocking up. What's it look like,' The girl replied.

'Stocking up for what, exactly?'

'It's not safe for my kind here. Frikdreina are forbidden. I have to leave this place, John.'

'Frikreina?' Byrd queried; 'Mutation?'

Emori glared up at her, which she smirked to; knowing she was right.

'So, what, you're gonna bail on me again?' Murphy asked as the grounder moved to the next body.