Eleven months ago...
Avery's father had missed two visitation sessions. Every time it came around for family and friends visiting, she was left with an empty heart upon figuring out he wouldn't be seeing her.
And so, every day since the second missed visit, Avery had interrogated the guards checking her room to tell her where he was. And it seemed that she would finally get her answer.
"Prisoner 302, against the wall."
They barged into her room one morning, ordering her against the wall so they could check that she had no weapons - or whatever excuse they liked to use - before allowing her to stand freely in her room once again. When she turned back, she found that she was face to face with Abby Griffin.
Her face set in stone, her fists clenching beside her and a harsh chuckle threatening to leave her lips. There was no one that she wanted to see less. Abby only looked patient in return, albeit a little downcast.
"What's going on?"
Instead of replying immediately, Abby turned back to the guards hovering behind her, asking for them to step out so she could speak to the girl alone. The guards both refused and Abby was forced to talk to her with the unfamiliar men both present.
"Avery I really didn't want to have to tell you this." She began gravely. "Your father's condition significantly worsened over these past few weeks."
As Abby began to explain what was wrong with her father, Avery could feel everything going on around her becoming too much. She felt as though time was swirling to a stop; sound becoming muffled, the floor swaying beneath her feet, her vision blurring ever so slightly.
"Unfortunately he passed away a few days ago."
Oh.
There was a moment of silence in which Avery didn't know how she was supposed to respond. She had never lost a loved one before. Well, she had lost her mom, but she was practically a baby when that happened, so she wasn't even able to respond.
"Why didn't you tell me he was dying?" She eventually asked, her voice quiet but edging on anger.
"I didn't think you would-"
"-What? That I wouldn't want to know? You didn't let me say goodbye!"
Tears were thick in her eyes, and she was desperately trying to blink them away. Her head was a mess, and her heart felt like it was about to pound out of her chest.
She wasn't close to her father, but she deserved to say goodbye.
Abby had nothing to say. She hung her head for a few quiet moments, and then looked shamefully to the girl staring back at her and still trying to suppress her tears.
And then Avery couldn't take it any longer.
It all happened in a flash. Abby beginning to speak again, giving her a pitying look, and Avery yelling out some insults even she wouldn't repeat and then trying to lunge for the woman.
It wasn't a proud moment.
The guards reached her before she could push Abby. In less than a second, she had been sent stumbling towards the wall with a stinging sensation in her right cheek.
One of them slapped her.
Avery's trembling hand rose to her cheek to try and feel the numbness the slap left on her skin. She was barely zoned in on her surroundings: in which Abby was shouting louder at the guard than Avery had ever heard anyone on the Ark shout.
They were finally left alone.
Avery was on the verge of sobbing now, struggling to control her emotions as she stared at the blank white wall in front of her. Abby was standing only a few feet away, just desperate to try and make the girl feel better in any way possible.
It wasn't her fault Avery's father was dead. But she didn't tell the girl he was dying. She didn't let her say goodbye - which Avery knew she had the authority to allow.
"Avery-"
"-You need to leave." The girl spoke in an unwavering tone that put Abby on edge.
"I'm so sor-"
"-Get out."
Avery could never look at Abby the same way again. Anytime she did, she was reminded of the fact her father was dead and she didn't get to say goodbye.
It was much easier for her to hate Abby than it was to face her true feelings of regret and remorse. She was genuinely upset about the loss of her father despite the dysfunctional relationship they had.
Abby left without another word.
~
Present day...
"His pulse is thready." Clarke murmured, anxiously looking down at her watch.
Avery shifted from where she was sat, moving closer towards Jasper and Clarke. The boy was still unconscious, letting out groans of agony every so often.
It was difficult to ignore the boy's cries of pain, but it was even more difficult to ignore the kids complaining about him.
"Shut that kid up!"
"Can he just die already?"
Avery scowled at the cruel comments, the hand squeezing Jasper's reassuringly beginning to grip his a little too tightly. Clarke looked up to the agitated girl, before diverting her eyes quickly upon spotting her frustration.
"If those kids don't shut up in a minute, I'm going to murder them."
"As much as I agree with you, I think it may be best you take a walk." Clarke advised gently.
Avery considered arguing back to her for a moment - her childishness peeking through - but ultimately decided that Clarke was right. She got up from beside Jasper, shot Monty a soft smile, and left the Dropship as quickly as she could; somehow ignoring the idiotic kids still complaining about Jasper.
Outside the ship wasn't quiet. It was late, but many people were sat and chatting around the bonfire, and a few were wandering across their camp.
Avery strolled past the fire, letting the heat radiating from it warm her for a brief moment. It was then that she heard a scream - one that sounded like it was from a young girl.
Avery hated kids. But even she wasn't evil enough to listen to one crying and do nothing.
Following the sound, she found a small girl curled up at the base of a tree. Her hands were gripped onto her jacket as she slept; clearly having a nightmare. She let out a few more cries, and after debating it heavily, Avery decided the best thing to do would be to comfort her.
She rested a hand gently on the girl's arm, startling her out of her sleep. The girl shot up, the bonfire from over by the Dropship illuminating the tears on her face. She watched Avery in confusion and fear.
"Hey, are you okay?"
Avery spoke surprisingly softly for someone who was a self-proclaimed kid hater.
The small girl blinked up at her, disorientated for a few moments, before nodding uncertainly. Avery raised her eyebrows, as if to say she was unconvinced, and the kid reluctantly shook her head.
"Do you wanna talk about it?"
It took the girl a few moments before she began to speak, still watching Avery with uncertainty, which the other girl couldn't blame her for.
"It's my parents. They were floated, and I see it in my dreams-"
The girl broke off to cry, and Avery took it upon herself to sit down beside her. She didn't want to say the wrong thing and make her even more upset, but she was in too deep to say nothing.
"Hey, I don't understand exactly what you're going through," Avery winced at her own awkward words. "But my parents are both gone as well."
The smaller girl raised her eyebrows a little, as if she was reassured by someone in a similar position. Avery didn't know how this would be helping her, but decided to go with it.
"I'm Avery, by the way."
"Charlotte."
"So, what got you locked up, Charlotte?"
Charlotte sniffled and glanced away from Avery shamefully. It was as though the small girl was afraid her crime would be something Avery would resent her for. She highly doubted the kid could do anything truly evil.
"They were taking my parents things to the redistribution centre and I lost it. I assaulted a guard."
Avery suddenly startled forwards, noticing the similarity between them. "That's why I'm here. I assaulted a guard too."
"Really?"
Avery nodded to confirm, and Charlotte suddenly looked a whole lot more reassured. The older girl let out a heavy sigh and gave the other a knowing look.
"The Guard suck."
They both laughed, and now all of Charlotte's tears had dried and disappeared. Avery felt a soft smile coming onto her face, the back of her mind thinking about how weird it was that the child wasn't getting on her nerves.
"We're on the ground now, everything that happened on the Ark can be forgotten about." She said gently.
"You promise?"
Avery hesitated, realising her words could easily be disproven, but before she could even say anything else, some laughs over at the bonfire caught her attention. Spotting Clarke wandering away from the Dropship, not involved in the chatter, she had a different idea.
"Hey, you wanna talk to Clarke? She's a lot better with people than I am."
Charlotte chuckled, looking as though she wanted to argue that Avery seemed pretty good with people, before choosing just to nod. The older girl hopped up from her seat, telling her to wait a moment, and then jogged over towards Clarke.
She pretty much forgot that she and Clarke weren't exactly friends as she did so, yelling the girl's name as if they had been best friends for years. Clarke's confusion therefore made a lot of sense. Cautiously approaching her, Clarke didn't get an opportunity to even ask what was going on before Avery pointed out Charlotte.
"She had this nightmare or something- Look, I'm not really good with kids, so I thought it might be better if you talked to her."
Clarke looks a little surprised but it didn't shock her at all that Avery launched into explanation of the situation. She had never seemed to be one for beating around the bush. So Clarke nodded.
"Yeah, that's fine."
Just before she left, Clarke stopped to turn back to the girl. She couldn't help but point out something. "You know, it looks like you did a good job already."
As Clarke left to talk to the kid, Avery noticed that Charlotte actually did look happier. Maybe kids aren't so bad. It was likely this mentality wouldn't stay for a while.
"Guess what?" Avery asked in a sing-song tone, Monty lazily looking up from where he was watching over Jasper.
"What?" He replied, his attempt to be casual easily failing with his voice giving away his obvious interest in what she was talking about.
"I talked to a child and I didn't want to float myself. Like, she wasn't annoying at all!"
"What?" Monty repeated the same thing he had said before, only this time he sounded like he was in complete disbelief.
He couldn't count the amount of times she had informed him that she hated kids. So either someone had murdered Avery and assumed her identity - whilst knowing nothing about her - or there was more to the story which seemed too unlikely to be true.
"I'm serious Monty! This kid, a girl called Charlotte, she had this nightmare or something and I went over there all like 'well I'm just going to make this kid cry even more aren't I?' but I didn't! I actually helped!"
Monty watched the girl ramble on with an amused smile. He had never seen anyone look so proud of themselves since they had landed on Earth, but he was certain she deserved it. Considering how much she disliked kids prior to this Charlotte, she must've really done something worthy of her pride since Avery was glowing in happiness instead of being stuck in the bad mood she'd otherwise inevitably be in.
"That's-" Monty was taken aback by her delight, but ultimately happy for her. "That's impressive. I don't think I could've done that."
She poked out her tongue playfully at him, and continued to blabber on about how she must have got it wrong about kids in the past, and how she's a natural at dealing with them, and Monty only watched her with fondness. They had settled into this dynamic; mainly consisting of Avery talking passionately about something - usually complaining about something, so this was a change - and Monty listening and commenting every so often thoughtfully.
Clarke reappeared soon after with Finn, and Avery quietened pretty quickly, feeling weird about the girl seeing her talk so animatedly. Monty returned to looking at the wristbands, with Avery choosing to join Jasper's side and use a damp towel to calm his body temperature. It was only a few minutes later that Jasper's pained groans had grown louder, leading Clarke to go and clean his wound once again.
"The Grounders cauterized the wound. Saved his life." The blonde girl said aloud, gently tending to his wounds.
"Saved his life so they could string him up for live bait. Garden of Eden this ain't." Finn replied, and Avery and Monty shared an uncomfortable look about Jasper being tied up as bait.
"This is infected. He could be septic." Clarke's expression was grave, and despite Avery knowing nothing medical related, even she knew that was not a good thing.
"Any progress on using the wristbands to contact the Ark?" The blonde asked Monty.
Monty was frozen in place, his eyes glued to his best friend, and his hands still holding a wristband and a small tool. It was like he couldn't even hear Clarke.
"Monty?" She tried again, and this time Monty's eyes floated towards her. Avery could tell he didn't really want to talk, not when he was this worried for Jasper.
"Nothing." Avery chimed in, her eyebrows furrowing in concern for the boy. "No progress."
"My mother would know what to do." Clarke muttered to herself helplessly.
"How's he doing?"
Wells had wandered up to their level, his eyes looking over Jasper. Clarke didn't seem particularly pleased to see him, but it didn't seem that he cared about that.
"How does it look like he's doing, Wells?" She asked him exasperated, and he held up his hands defensively.
"Hey, I'm just trying to help."
"Right. You want to help? Hold him down."
Finn moved towards them, joining Wells in holding Jasper into place on the ground. Avery straightened up so she was standing, backing away nervously as she watched Clarke hold a blade into a flame to heat it.
Oh no.
"I'm not gonna like this, am I?" Monty murmured.
Jasper's cries grew loud enough to attract attention from Octavia and Bellamy. The siblings appeared in the top level of the Dropship just as Clarke had turned back with the blade. Jasper had begun to thrash on the floor, alarming the blonde girl, and as much as Avery was terrified, she couldn't bring herself to look away.
"Hold him down! I need to cut away the infected flesh."
Finn and Wells were watching Clarke nervously, but Monty was watching Jasper. He had moved closer to catch a better look at it all, but Avery was convinced that wasn't the best idea if Monty wanted to calm his nerves. Seeing Clarke cut away Jasper's flesh with that blade wasn't something you'd want to see pretty closely.
Jasper's head lolled to one side, a tear visible and slipping down his cheek from the pain being endured. Avery's eyes was darting over all of them, her head feeling like it was about to explode.
"Stop it!" Octavia raced to the boy's side, frantically checking him over. "You're killing him!"
"She's trying to save his life." Finn corrected, but Avery shunned the boy's hands away from where they were clamping Jasper to the floor.
"She can't."
Bellamy's pessimism boomed through the room, causing the entire group to frown in upset and disagreement of the overconfident statement. Avery would've found Monty's death glare on the boy extremely attractive if it weren't such a serious situation.
"Back off." Wells warned Bellamy, eyes glowering, protective over Clarke.
"We didn't drag him through miles of woods just to let him die."
"Kid's a goner. If you can't see that, you're deluded."
Avery's eyes caught Monty's then. The boy gave her a curt shake of the head, telling her that he was extremely pissed off with Bellamy; despite the lack of emotion in the action. The girl's jaw tensed in return. Her fists were beginning to clench, her heart was pounding faster and faster with each passing second, and she was sure she was about to snap at any moment.
She wasn't so good at keeping her emotions in check.
"He's making people crazy." Bellamy added, and that was enough for Avery to feel she had to say something.
"Well I'm sorry someone's pain is an inconvenience for you Bellamy." She threw at him sarcastically, earning a glare in her direction.
"This isn't the Ark." Clarke pointed out. "Down here, every life matters."
"Take a look at him. He's a lost cause."
But it wasn't Clarke taking a good look at Jasper's weak figure, it was Octavia. The girl's eyes were wide in fear and upset and a desire to help the boy that saved her life.
"Octavia, I've spent my whole life watching my mother heal people." Clarke began gently, keen to reassure her. "If I say there's hope, there's hope."
"This isn't about hope, it's about guts. You don't have the guts to make the hard choices. I do." Bellamy's big-headed words had Avery scoffing. "He's been like this for three days. If he's not better by tomorrow, I'll kill him myself."
Now I'm angry.
Avery moved in an instant so she was only a foot away from Bellamy. She could've sworn she saw a flash of fear pass through his expression, and then she remembered that he would know why she got arrested on the Ark. He knows she's not scared to hurt him.
Sure, she only punched a Guard in the face, but the rumour of her assaulting him could imply she did a lot worse.
"You try to do that and I'll kill you."
But his knowledge of her arrest didn't stop him from talking back to her threat.
"What is your problem?"
She stepped even closer then, having to go on her tiptoes to try and appear intimidating to the older boy. Before then, she could scarcely remember that she was only seventeen and Bellamy was twenty two. But now, stood up close with the only adult on the ground, she had no idea how she could have forgotten.
"What's my problem? You want to kill an innocent person!"
Sensing things could easily turn ugly, Octavia hopped up and eased her way between them by placing a hand on Avery's shoulder. She put some distance between the pair and chuckled awkwardly as if she was nervous their disagreement would turn physical.
"Alright, let's calm down."
From the way Octavia's eyes were flitting to Avery, it was easy to tell she was on her side. However, Bellamy and his expectant demand didn't seem to pick up on this.
"Octavia, let's go."
Octavia didn't move from Jasper's side, or even spare Bellamy a glance. It only took her a second to call out, "I'm staying here."
Bellamy paused for a moment, waiting to see if his sister changed her mind, before disappearing down the ladder. As soon as he was out of sight, Monty snapped.
"Power-hungry, self-serving jackass. He doesn't care about anyone but himself." He spat out, his eyes still watching where Bellamy had left.
Damn, Monty.
Avery nudged his side then, noticing the flicker of pain passing through Octavia's expression. This spurred Monty to awkwardly add, "No offense."
"Yeah. Bellamy is all that." Finn mused, his thoughtful gaze focused on the floor. "But he also happens to be right."