atomic man, john murphy.

Blood Must Have Blood

Clove's head tilted to the side lazily as her hollow eyes slowly scanned the room and lingered on her brother before focusing on the women at the front of the room. Commander Lexa had welcomed the people from the Ark to discuss the plan for getting everybody out of Mount Weather. Clove tuned in and out of Clarke's explanation of what was to come. She knew all she needed to know; where to point the gun.

As the grounders began chanting, the Coleman girl rolled her eyes and left the tent, Emilio not far behind. She squinted as she adjusted to the sunlight and found a seat on a large rock. "CJ," Emilio spoke, eyeing her dirty figure.

"What do you want?" Clove seethed, practically baring her teeth at him. "Gonna throw me under the bus again?"

"No... no, I came to apologize actually."

She grabbed the gun from her waistband, turning it over a few times in her hands as she admired the sleek, black exterior. "Well," Clove didn't even glance up at him. "Let's hear it then."

"I'm sorry for not trusting you. And treating you like glass. I know you just want to help," The boy had his gaze trained on her. Clove still refrained from making any eye contact but stopped messing with the weapon. "And I'm sorry that I can't let that happen."

Clove may have been smaller and faster than her brother, but with her mind elsewhere, she was at a mental disadvantage. Emilio took her moment of weakness as a chance to grab the gun from her hands. "Hey! What is your problem, dickhead!"

"My problem," He paused to dodge Clove's feeble attempts to get the gun back. "Is that you're trying to fix guilt from years of your actions with violence. This isn't going to help you!"

"You don't fucking know that," Clove lunged at him again. "Give it back, Emilio. I'm trying to save the people I care about."

"And that's very good of you, but you're going to push yourself closer to the edge in the process." He removed the magazine from the weapon and placed it in his pocket, then proceeded to put the gun in the back of his waistband. "If you won't do what's good for you, I will."

"Fuck you," Clove glared and shoved Emilio's shoulders. "How do you know what's good for me? You don't know shit." She shoved him again with a bit more force; just enough for him to stumble onto the ground.

"CJ, stop. You need to breathe because this isn't like you."

"You don't know me," She retorted. "Get up."

"Clove," Caesar put his hand on his daughter's bony shoulder. "What are you doing?"

Clove looked back at her father and groaned. She shook his hand off and stomped away. Caesar decided to put that issue on hold for a moment and gave Emilio a hand up. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm okay," The boy assured. "Clearly she isn't though. I know she means well but..."

"But she's too blinded by her emotions to be thinking clearly right now. You did the right thing, Emilio," Caesar assured.

"Are you going to try to talk to her?"

"I think she will only push me farther away at this point. She needs a bit of space. I'll just keep an eye on her from a distance when we start getting to blowing this door up," He explained. "In the meantime, why don't you give me the gun."

Emilio nodded and placed the separate pieces to the deadly puzzle in each of Caesar's outstretched palms. He glanced at the metal door built into the mountain. "I'm afraid, papa."

"Don't worry, we're going to get them out of there."

"That's not what I'm afraid of - I mean it is, but I meant I'm afraid Clove is too far gone already." He looked into his father's seasoned eyes. "She loves me more than everybody in this world except for you and she was on the verge of killing me."