Hello... Is it me you're looking for?
Hell yeah it is.
Swedish= Bold writing.
F I V E | PAINFUL IRONY
Carter had never sat with such content before. She was perched on top of the vehicle, her legs folded beneath her as she watched the the surrounding area with a ghost of a smile.
She was happy.
It was an emotion she felt a lot, albeit, but this kind of happy made her chest burst with a bubbly feeling. The world had gone to shit, Clarke had a bounty on her head, Monty just found out his father died, but no matter what way they looked at it, they were together; they had found more of their people. She couldn't get anymore chick-flicky, even if she tried, but she couldn't deny that her happiness was caused because she was back with the people she loved. The people she considered family.
She would be lying if she also denied how she missed Steven too, she wanted to know if Kara had returned from her expedition with Jaha and Murphy, she was thrilled at the idea of seeing Rae again and how she was coping to the Outsider's ways, she curious about Lincoln and Octavia-- how they were doing as a couple and how badass the younger Blake had gotten. She missed everyone, Raven, Jasper hell even Wick.
She fumbled with the knife in her hand, looking back to the small trading post in which her dad, Bellamy and Indra were currently interrogating the Grounder girl about Clarke's whereabouts.
"Hey, Sparky."
Carter looked down and spotted Monty smiling back at her. She didn't think it was possible for someone to look so happy yet so sad at the same time, but there he was, both a bright smile because he had been reunited with his mom, but his eyes held so much sadness for his dad. She didn't know which emotion was more primary.
"Hi, Monty." She smiled back. "Where's your mom?"
"Circling the perimeter." He dismissed with me a shrug. "How come you're not in there with Bellamy?"
She pulled a half-smile and looked down at her knife, putting the tip of it on the pad of her index finger as she twisted it, not too hard so it cut her, but hard enough that she felt it. "I don't always need to be by his side."
"True," Monty nodded, clambering onto the top of the car with her. "But what if he wants you to?"
The engineer frowned. "How'd you get to that conclusion? He's focused on saving Clarke, and that's cool, we all want her back, so I can wait until after she's back to actually talk to him."
Monty smirked. "Are you... Jealous?"
Carter scoffed incredulously, shaking her head. "What, no. I'm not jealous."
The hatch behind them suddenly opened, startling the both of them. "She's totally jealous."
Low and behold, Ren. The guy who was around and listening to everything even when he wasn't supposed to be.
Carter glared at him with a new level of despise. "Aren't you supposed to be checking the perimeter?"
"Supposed to be, yes. Am I going to? No." He rested his elbows on the car and held his head in his hands, smiling sweetly. Sometimes, Carter wanted to laugh at his stupidity, most times, she wanted to sucker punch him in the face.
She wasn't sure what she wanted to do at that moment.
"Anyway, don't change the subject; you are definitely jealous when it comes to Bellamy." Yeah, she wanted to sucker punch him.
"I have to agree with the noob here," Monty chuckled as Ren frowned in mock offence. "Come on, Sparky, you can tell us. It might help, you know, getting it out."
At that point, she had given in with the both of them and sighed loudly, her shoulders deflating. "Okay! So maybe a I am jealous. They've just got this thing, you'd have to be stupid to not see it. I don't know if it's from their shared leadership or not, but they just click." She looked away from them, her voice growing smaller. "She deserves him. More than I do."
"Why would you say that?" Monty frowned in confusion, noticing how her face just fell.
"Because it's the truth," she looked down at her hands. "I'm a liability, especially towards him, I might be stronger now, but who's to say I won't break again? And if I do, I don't want him to feel like he had to fix me, I don't wanna hurt him. Clarke... She's everything I'm not. She's kind, caring, strong. Just like him... I'm me, the girl that turned to a drug just to see her dead best friend. Clarke deserves Bellamy and that's why I'm jealous."
A thick silence sat between all three of them and Carter dared to look up. She didn't want to say any of that out loud because that meant it was true, but she did, and it hurt to admit. Well, as they say; truth hurts.
Suddenly, Ren started to laugh and both Monty and Carter looked back at him with frowns and he shook his head, holding his hand up as he composed himself. "I'm sorry," he chuckled. "Okay I'm done." He let out an lengthy breath. "Are you stupid?"
Carter raised her eyebrows and turned to Monty, pointing lazily at Ren. "It's like this dude wants me to punch him."
"Hear me out," Ren rolled his eyes and turned to Monty. "Okay, do you see the way he looks at her?"
The offending boy nodded his head slowly.
"Every time that happens and you see it, say cabbage. I'll do the same thing and maybe then she won't be so idiotic."
"Cabbage?" Monty repeated with amusement.
"Cabbage." Ren affirmed and Monty nodded, agreeing to his stupid plan. Ren then turned his attention to Carter and shook his head in disappointment. "Damn Carter, I didn't think you were such a girl."
She blinked at him. "That is only mildly offending."
"I didn't take you for the jealous type."
"I didn't take you for the judging type-- oh wait," she feigned shock before sending him a flat look. "I did. And cut me some slack. It's been three months since I last saw him, I'm gonna get jealous."
"Who's jealous?" Another voice broke through and Carter's eyes widened.
"Cart-" Before Ren could answer Bellamy, Carter slapped her hand over his mouth as hard as she could.
"-I am." She turned to smile at Bellamy innocently. "I'm jealous because you all got to drive Doris while I was away and I missed her."
"Doris?" Bellamy raised his eyebrows, laughing lightly.
Ren pushed Carter's hand away and glared at her. "Cabbage."
Carter rolled her shoulders uncomfortably, trying to bat Ren's comment away, as she focused on Bellamy, "Yeah, she needed a name and Doris is cute."
"If you say so." Bellamy mused.
"Cabbage." Monty chimed in, earning a hearty glare from Carter, a confused frown from Bellamy and a high five from Ren.
"So what did they say about Clarke?" Carter asked, desperate to change the conversation.
Bellamy's expression turned somber as he looked at her. "Clarke was gone by the time she got up. She said a bounty hunter came back for her, he was from the Ice Nation."
"These Ice Nation guys sound like dicks." Carter commented, hopping from the roof of the car. "So is that where we're heading?"
Bellamy nodded just as Pike jogged up to the small group. "Great news, I found fresh tracks."
"Awesome, let's get back inside Doris." Carter's smile faltered. "God, that sounded weird."
"I'm already inside her." Ren whispered, and Carter looked at him with a horrified expression.
"That's the bad news," Pike ignored Ren's comment. "Too many trees. We have to go on foot."
Cue an indignant groan from Ren.
___
"I never really realized how easy life was on the Ark." Monty mused, breaking the silence that had overtaken all of them. They had been walking for quite some time and he noticed how everyone apart from him and his mother were lost in their own thoughts. He thought it would be a good idea to bring some lightness to the group.
"You and Jasper used to run amok around Farm station, there was nothing easy when you two were together." Hannah laughed, glancing at her son as she reminisced fond memories.
"Oh come on, we weren't that bad." Monty rolled his eyes. "We just used to accidentally kill some of the crops when playing tag-- no biggie."
"Oh I will acknowledge that and raise you one," Ren spoke up. "When Caroline and I were kids, we were goofing around in my dad's office and I fell, knocking a drink over on a control panel and tripped the power out for five minutes, my dad managed to convince them that there was a faulty wire."
"That was you?" Pike turned with wide eyes. "I remember that, I was teaching a class when it happened. They all started screaming, thinking we were going to die."
"Yeah..." Ren scratched his head. "That was me."
"I almost floated my dad." Carter piped up nonchalantly.
"How?" Bellamy asked from beside her.
"Cabbage."
"I was a kid, I didn't know what button meant what." She shrugged sheepishly. "He was talking to one of the mechanics and I closed the door of the chamber on both of them because I was bored of waiting for him." She laughed in spite of herself. "He was freaking out."
"I almost died!" Kane tried to defend himself.
"Yeah, but you didn't." Carter retorted with a grin. "Almost, but you didn't."
"I think that was the last time I took you to work with me." Kane mused.
"It was." The engineer laughed. "I was four and you refused to cut me some slack."
"Even at the age of four you defied every rule I gave you." Kane scoffed, throwing an arm over his daughter and Carter shrugged with a smug smile.
"I was a badass four year old, bite me."
"We've been walking for four hours, how much longer do we have to go? My legs hurt." Ren groaned, rolling his neck in exasperation as he dragged his feet along the ground.
"Come talk to me when you've had a spear go through you foot." Carter rolled her eyes, looking back at her friend with a pointed look.
"Show off."
"Pussy ass bitch."
"What was that?"
"Shh!" Pike hissed, throwing up his hand to silence their bickering. The rest of the group stopped, looking around with wide eyes, alert for any sudden movements. The man straightened and squinted into the distance of the forest. "Hear that?"
"What?" Kane asked with a desperate eagerness. Sure enough, moments they later they began to hear the distant thuds and rustling of feet gaining closer and Kane inhaled sharply. "Ice Nation?"
"We can't be sure," Indra replied, stepping forward, her eyes narrowed as she focused on the noise. "We shouldn't risk it, we need to get up in the trees now."
"The trees?" Bellamy questioned, frowning at the Grounder.
"They're less likely to see us, and if they do we have a high vantage point." Indra replied curtly, not waiting for the others as she ran to the closest tree and began climbing it. Hesitation rested between the others until Pike shrugged and shortly followed in suit, though Carter was more focused on how someone as small as Indra could climb a tree as easy as she did. It just didn't look right.
"Carter, come on." Bellamy urged, pulling her along to a different tree. She sized it up and let out a shaky breath. She had climbed trees before, sure, but they weren't under pressure when she did, and considering time was working against her, she was freaking out. "Here, I'll give you a boost."
"Hang on, I need to take my jacket off for this." Carter announced as she shrugged the jacket off, placing it in a nearby bush.
Bellamy linked his hands together and Carter blew her cheeks up. Pft, she could do this. With a roll of her shoulders, she placed her boot in Bellamy's hands and pushed herself up, using his shoulders as support. The lowest branch was a few inches from her fingers as she tried to grasp it, she clenched her jaw and stretched her torso, grazing the bark slightly.
"Any time now, Carter, you're not as light as you look." Bellamy struggled, though there was both a sense of panic and lightness in his tone.
"I am not afraid to hit you, Bell." She mumbled, finally grabbing hold of the branch and heaving herself up. "Woo, I did it." She smiled breathlessly.
"We did it," Bellamy corrected as he backed up, giving himself some room to run and jump. Carter was skeptical he was going to make it, but within the first attempt, he successfully grabbed onto the branch and effortlessly lifted himself up. She raised her eyebrows, mildly impressed (and also shamelessly staring at his arms,) before she began her climb up. She saw Monty, his mom and Ren in the tree beside Pike and Indra, inwardly relaxing upon knowing no one else was on the ground as the noise grew closer.
"Y'know, tree climbing is pretty easy." She thoughtlessly stated as Carter heaved herself up higher.
"You would know, you lived in them for three months." Though the comment wasn't bitter, Carter winced at his words. Knowing that she left him, all of them, for three months without a single word and then just waltzed back into their lives without so much as a decent explanation or a real reunion bugged her slightly. "Hey, this is high enough, we're covered here."
"Nah, we can go higher." Carter insisted, pushing herself up the next level. The higher she was, the safer she felt. However, she also seemed to forget that the higher she went, the more nimble the branches became-- she wasn't reminded of this until she heard the sickening crack of the branch beneath her feet as it gave way and her eyes widened. Any attempts to save herself were futile as she fell, all the way down until she hit the ground with a loud thud.
The air rushed out of her lungs, leaving her to silently cry out in pain. She gritted her teeth as agony throbbed every cell of her body, but mainly, the pain came from her arm.
If she wasn't in a shit load of pain, maybe she would have found it amusing that it finally wasn't her leg.
Carter vaguely heard Bellamy calling her name, but the most distinct sound was the footsteps of those unknown people drawing closer, it was too late for her to even try to climb the tree again, that was if she could. She was too afraid to move incase she had done something severe, but she needed to hide. Finally plucking the courage, she lifted we head with a slight hiss as the back of her skull ached and glanced down at her body. Everything still seemed to be attached and their wasn't any ominous pools of blood around her... That was, until she finally got to look at her right arm.
The radius had completely snapped. As in it was protruding out of her forearm, which was already covered in blood. The only thing that stopped her from screaming was the shear adrenaline that was working on getting her to hide. Her breathing was heavy and lapsed and she quickly scrambled to her feet and hid behind the tree Bellamy was up. The footsteps only only a mere feet or so away by then.
Her left hand clasped tightly around her mouth and she squeezed her eyes shut as the pain began to burn, like someone was constantly holding fire against her forearm. Her chest constricted as a painful sob wanted to break through, but she only pushed her hand harder against her mouth. She decided to focus on the hum of foreign chatter rather than the thick, warm blood that dripped down into the crevices of her fingers.
It felt like an eternity that those people were there for, she wasn't sure if they were walking slow or if they had stopped, but every moment she could hear them, was a moment the pain increased to nearly unbearable. She wasn't going to cry though, she refused. She had a freaking spear go through her foot and she didn't cry, she wasn't about to do that now.
Sure, she didn't actually break a bone then.
And all because she didn't want to listen to Bellamy, she just had to go higher. Finally, she felt a soft thud beside her and she heard Bellamy's voice. Had the people gone?
She peaked through one eye and he pushed his index finger to his lips, indicating that they were still close by. Carter nodded her head weakly, and Bellamy finally caught sight of her arm, his eyes widening drastically. Oh yeah, only his girlfriend could fuck up that bad. He sat beside her silently and held onto her until they couldn't hear the voices anymore.
"It's gonna be okay."He whispered and Carter merely nodded again.
It felt like another eternity had past until they heard voices they were familiar with. "I think they're gone."
"It was Ice Nation troops."
Bellamy stood up and peered around the corner of the tree to see Pike and Indra jump from the tree along with the other three, no people were in sight.
"Help!" He called, voice deeper than usual. "Carter's broke her arm."
"Broke?" Kane repeated, jaw slack as he jogged over to where Bellamy stood. He noticed the bone that stuck out slightly from Carter's arm and gasped audibly. "How the hell...?"
"I fell out of the tree." She sighed through gritted teeth, battling the urge to cry out with agony.
"Holy shit." Ren's eyes widened.
"She needs medical attention immediately." Pike affirmed, kneeling down beside her as he zipped open his pack. "I've got some bandages but that's all I can do, she needs to go back to your camp."
"No I don't," Carter swallowed thickly. "I need to help find Clarke, just bandage me up and I'll be good."
"Carter, you have a freaking bone sticking out of your body." Bellamy retorted. "This isn't up for an argument, you need to go back to camp now."
Carter opened her mouth to contend, but what would be the point? She was in pain, she could deny that and it would only get worse, she wanted to help them find Clarke but she didn't want to lose her arm in the process.
"This is going to hurt," Pike warned as he began to wind the bandage around her arm, using force to push the bone inwards and all the nerves surrounding the area lit up with a burning pain and Carter tensed her stomach, biting down on her tongue as hard as she could. He swiftly finished wrapping the wound up and Carter let out a shaky breath, shaking her head slightly.
"I'll take her back to camp." Bellamy offered as he helped her up.
Before Carter had the change to object, Kane was already there. "No son, they'll need you here to help find Clarke." Kane smiled slightly. "I'll take her, she's my daughter after all."
"No," Carter shook her head with a frown, her voice was strained as she tried to keep the aching at bay. "You'll both be needed, I can go back on myself," she glanced at Monty. "There's a map in Doris right?"
"Yeah, under the drivers' seat, it'll lead you right back to Arkadia."
"Arkadia?" The blonde repeated with confusion.
"It's what Camp Jaha's called now." He shrugged. "You can't get lost with that map."
"Then it's settled, I'll go back on my own." Carter swallowed, smiling vaguely. "No need to slow any of you down."
"Hell no," Bellamy scoffed, "Someone's going with you, I'll go with you."
"No," Carter repeated with more force. He needed to find Clarke, not babysit her. "Ren can come with me."
"I can?" The offending boy cocked his brow. Carter sent him a pointed look and he coughed awkwardly. "I mean, I can."
"I don't know, can we really trust him?" Bellamy asked, not caring that Ren was right there.
"We were together for weeks and she didn't hurt herself once, I think you can trust me." Ren smiled in a certain bittersweet fashion. There was a hardened, seething look on Bellamy's face, but he didn't say anything else. "Well, we better get going then, Doris is ages away and you'll only get weaker by the minute."
Carter nodded and smiled at her father. "I'm sorry it's a short reunion, I'll see you at camp. Be safe, alright." Though it sounded like a question, it was a statement and Kane was aware of that as he nodded and kissed her gently on the read.
"You too." He mumbled.
"See you back at work, Monty, don't get yourself kidnapped." She winked at him and Monty laughed. "Nice meeting you, Monty's mom. You too, Pike. And I'll probably vaguely see you around, Indra."
She turned to Bellamy and smiled. "Please be careful and please don't do anything reckless, I know it's Clarke, but I do want you to come back in one piece."
"I will." He smiled, bending down to kiss her gently, brushing her hair with his hand lightly. "Until we meet again."
She pulled away and smiled stiffly. "That saying is so sentimental," she chuckled. "I'll see you when I see you."
___________
I HAVE BEEN GONE FOR SO LONG
HOWEVER, I AM BACK AND THIS CHAPTER WAS REALLY MEDIOCRE BECAUSE I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT I WAS DOING HALF THE TIME.
Yeah. She broke her arm. Why? Because it was painfully ironic and also, I could not and would not ruin the moment between Clarke and Bellamy with my lil' OC so she's done what she does best and she's seriously hurt herself, go Carter.
And as you can also see, she's gonna have A LOT of insecurities this season because who wouldn't? She left her boyfriend and nothing is gonna be the same. May I also add, you guys have requested jealousy a lot, so brace yourselves.
And of course, Carter is a dork and no matter how serious the situation, you can bet that she herself won't have too many serious moments. I hope this chapter was alright :).
Thank you for reading!