two; THE LAST OF HER
The entire dropship has been vacated by the time Reese was able to regain feeling in her legs and begin moving, a smile spreading across her face when a soft thud emitted from the surface of the ground when her feet touched it for the very first time.
Unwilling to close her eyes to even blink, Reese took a deep breath, her smile growing as she inhaled fresh air for the very first time in her life and she gazed around in complete awe as she slowly moved towards the trees feeling all of the leaves and twigs crunching beneath her boots.
It was like nothing she had ever seen before.
She was now surrounded by different shades of green, from lime, to emerald, to jade. The air was fresh and everything around her smelt like nothing she could ever imagine even in her wildest dreams. She could smell the wild flowers that grew feet away from her and she could smell something sweet to her left. It would have been quiet, had it not been for the teenagers running around, screaming and shouting in excitement, chatting loudly, reuniting with friends that they hadn't seen since they had been locked up, climbing the trees, smelling the flowers, exploring their surroundings. Just gazing at everything around them in utter awe.
Her entire life had been surrounded by dull grey panelling, the scent and taste of stale air, and the humming of the engines that was carved into her memory from the very first memory she could ever recall, never once having a moment of quiet or peace, even while sleeping.
That was all gone because aside from the faint chatter of the teenagers running amock for the first time on Earth, with no adult supervision.
The world was quiet.
A breeze brushed across her cheeks and she felt the warmth of the sun on her face for the very first time. He fingers brushed gently across the rough texture of the bark on the trees, memorising the feel of it as though her life depended on it and she let out a loud laugh that was filled with both relief and delight because she wasn't locked up, she was alive, she was free.
"Now, that is something that I never thought I would hear again."
Reese spun around and came face-to-face with her best friend, who looked so incredibly different but so much like the boy she grew up with.
"Bell." She breathed just as she was swept into his muscular arms for the first time since they had danced together almost a year prior to his moment and she beamed widely as she buried her face into his chest, "Thought you'd seen the last of me, hadn't you?"
"I thought you were dead." He mumbled into her hair and she pretended not to notice the way his voice cracked on the last word.
"I'm here." She said quietly, tears pooling in her own eyes, "I'm here."
He nodded and the two reluctantly broke apart but Bellamy remained close to her as they stared at one another.
"How?" He asked hoarsely, "I thought you were dead."
"I'm sorry, so sorry that you were made to think that." She whispered emotionally, "I was placed into solitary as soon as I was arrested and I wasn't able to the get word out that I was still alive."
"I'm glad that you're still alive." He murmured with that soft smile that he only ever truly used with her.
She grinned at him, "Yeah, I'm pretty happy about it myself."
✦❀✦
After her exchange with Bellamy who had reluctantly moved from her after some, also reluctant, prodding, to find out where Octavia had disappeared to, she began to wander once more, drinking in all of her surroundings.
She felt like she was five years old again and she and Bellamy were watching the moon rise for the first time and when she heard a loud exchange beginning to breakout by the dropship, she decided to head back over.
"We're just trying to figure out where we are."
Reese recognised Wells Jaha almost immediately, a boy whom she had babysat when she was younger, and ultimately refused to even look at after her mother's execution and she'd stopped looking after him as she wasn't even able to step a foot into the Chancellor's quarters without feeling physically ill, it wasn't Wells' fault, no, but he was so incredibly like his father that she could barely stomach the thought of the eleven year old telling her, without any prompting, that her mother knew the consequences of her actions.
No, Reese avoided Alpha Station at all costs after her sixteenth birthday.
"We're on the ground." Bellamy called, "That not good enough for you?"
Reese sighed as she made her way through the growing crowd of teenagers, knowing that if Bellamy's personality set people off, she would have to do some damage control.
"We need to find Mount Weather." Wells told him, "You heard my father's message, that has to be our first priority."
"Screw your father." Octavia spat, looking rather disgusted at the mention of the Chancellor, "What, you think you're in charge here? You and your little princess?"
Reese glanced at the siblings hesitantly as she stopped next to them.
"Do you think we care who's in charge?" Clarke asked angrily, "We need to get to Mount Weather not because the Chancellor said so, but because the longer we wait, the hungrier we'll get and the harder this will be. How long do you think we'll last without those supplies? We're looking at a twenty-mile trek, okay? So if we want to get there before dark, we need to leave now."
Reese had to agree with that as she looked at the younger girl in a new light.
"I got a better idea." Bellamy replied, "You two go, find it for us. Let the privileged do the hard work for a change."
There were shouts of agreement as the brunette scowled at her best friend, wondering if he truly remembered where she was born and where she had been raised.
"You're not listening." Wells told him, looking rather frustrated, "We all need to go."
Before Reese had time to even blink, one of the teenagers had darted forward and shoved the Chancellor's son to the ground quite forcefully.
"Look at this, everybody... The Chancellor of Earth." The boy announced with a sneer, causing the delinquents to laugh loudly in response as though they had just been told the funniest joke of all time.
The twenty-one year old began to move towards the fight, to break it up, but an arm reached out stopped her and she looked up to see Bellamy shaking his head her, leaving her to narrow her eyes at the man with an angry look, not forgetting his earlier words.
"Think that's funny?" Wells questioned as he pushed himself from the ground.
The boy that Reese finally recognised as John Murphy smirked as he struck the boy's leg with his own, sending him to the ground once more.
"Wells." Clarke gasped moving to rush towards him, only to be held back by one of Murphy's cronies.
Bellamy's grip on Reese's arm tightened when he felt her shift her weight.
"Let go of me!" She hissed under her breath.
"Not happening, Spitfire." He replied as he pulled her back, causing the woman to recoil slightly.
Reese blinked.
For the life of her, she could not remember when Bellamy had last called her by that god awful nickname and she had strain to recall that it must have been when they were at least in their early teens.
Murphy smirked at him, "No, but that was."
The son of the Chancellor hauled himself to his feet and got into a shaky fighting stance causing the delinquents to laugh and both Reese and Clarke to struggle to get out of the grips of the people holding them.
"What're you gonna do now?" One of the delinquents shouted mockingly as Murphy pretended to lunge at the boy causing him to flinch back.
"Come on. Come on." He laughed moving forward as the former prisoners began cheering loudly in support of Murphy just Wells staggered forward, due to his ankle, and Reese's protective instincts came forward as she yelled at Bellamy to let her go as she attempted to force herself from his hold.
As John Murphy moved strike Wells once more, a figure jumped from the top of the dropship, landing in between the two boys, causing Murphy to hesitate as the crowd that their fight had gained gasped in awed surprise.
Murphy looked from the boy to the where he'd jumped from and back to him in disbelief as a few of the teenagers sighed in disappointment that the scuffle was over so soon.
"Kid's got one leg." Finn Collins said with a smirk, "How about you wait until it's a fair fight?"
Reese broke out of Bellamy's grip with an angry scowl as the silence was broken by Octavia.
"Hey, Spacewalker." She called out, causing him to turn to the brunette.
"This should be good." The brunette mumbled under her breath.
"Rescue me next." She told him with a flirty smile.
Finn only grinned excitedly at her in response causing laughs to break out throughout the teenagers and Bellamy stormed towards his sister as the circle broke apart, leaving Reese to roll her eyes once she saw his 'protective brother' face, quickly following after him before he murdered the alledged spacewalker.
"What?" The youngest Blake asked when she saw her brother's look, "He's cute."
"He's a criminal," Bellamy told her.
"We're all criminals." Reese reminded him with a glare, not forgetting their exchanges in the minutes earlier.
"Thank you." Octavia said, grinning at her friend before repeating her, "They're all criminals."
Bellamy sighed as he grabbed Octavia's arm and gestured for Reese to follow him when she moved away from his outstretched arm, which she did, very reluctantly.
"Look, O. I came down here to protect you." He explained.
"I don't need protecting. I have been locked up one way or another all my life. I am done following orders. I need to have fun, Bell. I need to just do something crazy just because I can, and no one, including you or Reese, is gonna stop me." The seventeen year old ranted after she had pulled her arm from her brother's grasp and glared at the two.
Reese raised her arms in defense.
"I wasn't trying to stop you." She protested.
Bellamy looked between the two girls with a frown.
"I can't stay with them." He told them.
"Now what are you talking about?" Reese and Octavia asked in unison, annoyance colouring their tones at just how vague he was being, especially when Bellamy glanced around nervously.
"I did something, okay, to get on the drop ship, something that they will kill me for when they come down." He said quietly as though afraid of someone listening in, "I can't say what it is just yet, but you have to trust me. You both still trust me, don't you?"
"Yeah." Octavia answered.
Reese nodded, before tilting her head at him curiously, wondering what the hell he did to have him looking so terrified.
✦❀✦
Reese awkwardly watched as Clarke looked over Wells' ankle, aware of the tension between them, and wondering what Wells could have done to get such a strong reaction from Clarke.
Footsteps approached them and Reese looked up to see Finn.
"So, uh, Mount Weather." He said, announcing his presence, "When do we leave?"
Clarke stood from her crouched position by Wells' ankle and nodded, "Right now."
Reese pushed herself off the side of the dropship she was leaning against and looked between the three
"We'll be back tomorrow with food," Clarke informed Wells.
"How are the two of you gonna carry enough food for a hundred?" He asked, jealousy flashing across his face as he looked between the two.
"What am I?" Reese scoffed, "Invisible?"
"The three of you." He corrected, sending the brunette an apologetic smile.
Finn turned, grabbed a hold of two boys, and turned back to their small group.
Reese looked at the two, recognising one of the boys as Monty Green, a boy who had been recruited by engineering six months before her arrest, she didn't know the other boy's name, but she had seen him hanging around with Monty a lot.
"Five of us. Can we go now?" He asked, his voice becoming impatient as excitement filled his eyes at the prospect of an adventure.
"Sounds like a party." Octavia called out, clapping her hands together, "Make it six."
"Hey, what the hell are you doing?" Bellamy asked once he had caught up with his sister.
"Going for a walk." She answered innocently before Bellamy turned to his best friend, his expression stony.
"What's your excuse?" He questioned, his jaw clenching angrily.
The twenty-one year old shrugged as she stared at him.
"I thought us privileged had to do the hard work for a change." She answered, phrasing her response as a question as she lifted an eyebrow challengingly, waiting for his answer.
His features softened slightly at the look on her face, he hadn't meant to offend her when he had said those words to Clarke and Wells, because frankly, he didn't think of Reese as one of the priviledged children from Alpha Station and he opened his mouth to apologise when Clarke cut him off.
"Hey." She said, grabbing Finn's arm that held his now slightly damaged wristband, looking up at the spacewalker in complete disbelief.
"Were you trying to take this off?" She asked.
"Yeah." He shrugged, "So?"
"So this wristband transmits your vital signs to The Ark. Take it off, and they'll think you're dead." The blonde told him, frustration prominent on her face.
Finn stared at her blankly, "Should I care?"
"Well, I don't know." Clarke replied in a soft tone that hid her anger extremely well, "Do you want the people you love to think you're dead? Do you want them to follow you down here in two months? Because they won't if they think we're dying."
A look of guilt flashed across the younger boy's face and Reese knew his thoughts were focused on Raven and he glanced down at the ground for a single moment before he looked back to the blonde and nodded once.
"Okay, now let's go," Clarke said and Octavia turned to look at Bellamy pleadingly, who still looked rather apprehensive, though he relented with a sigh.
"Go on."
Octavia grinned brightly as she leaned up to kiss her brother's cheek before she then raced after Finn who was leading Monty and the boy with the goggles.
Bellamy looked at Reese.
"Will you look after her?"
"I may be fairly, no majorly, pissed at you right now, Bell." She told him, "But you know that I'd protect Octavia with my life."
A smile graced his features as he leaned down and pressed his lips to her forehead.
Reese closed her eyes for a second before opening and then running to catch up with the youngest Blake throwing a wave over her shoulder at her best friend as Octavia linked theri arms togrther with an excited smile.
Clarke made her way over to the two girls as they began their journey through the first thicket of trees.
"Before you get any ideas." Octavia warned the older girls, "Finn's mine,"
Clarke looked at her weirdly.
"Before you get any ideas, I don't care."
Reese laughed as she looked at the two girls that she had viewed as sisters at one point or another and Octavia looked at her expectantly causing the twenty-one year old to grin at the girl, her eyes flashing with her amusement.
"You know I'm not into younger guys, O."
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i live for octavia and reese's relationship and that's all i have to say.
thanks for reading!
~r