Disclaimer
I have an English first period tomorrow and instead of studying for it I'm just editing this. PRIORITIES.
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Grace Parker wasn't sure what to think now. When the group in front of the door dispersed and Jasper came to speak with them all quietly, he claims to have seen Bellamy standing outside of the dorm clad in a guards uniform. Maya stood beside him, which was why Jasper was initially looking that way in the first place.
Grace didn't know how to feel with the new information. She was having trouble just grasping the fact that he was actually alive, let alone undercover in this mountain, presumably to break them all out. But, he was dead, right? There was no way he actually got away in time. . . right? Even if he had somehow survived the blast off at the dropship, there was no way a grounder hadn't found him and killed him.
"We've been locked up for hours," Miller whispers. "If it was Bellamy—"
"It was Bellamy. I'm telling you. He's here," Jasper states. Grace tenses up slightly, crossing her arms over her chest and trying to keep a calm facade. She wasn't sure what to say or what to feel, all she knows is that if it wasn't Bellamy and it was just a convenient look-alike then she would kick Jaspers ass.
"All right."
"It doesn't make any sense," Monty buts in, moving to stand in front of them. Grace purses her lips, turning back around to send her people a small and reassuring smile. She had to act like she was okay so that her people wouldn't worry even more than they already were. She could practically see the fear radiating off of them.
"I know what I saw."
The sound of the door unlocking causes all of their heads to snap towards them. Grace moves to stand in front of her friends, her face stern and intimidating to the guards that start parading in. Dr.Tsing walks in directly in the middle of them, kind of like it was her own little protective square, with a stoic expression. "Back up everyone. Back up!"
"Move!"
Grace moves to stand next to Harper and Monty. There wasn't much she could do for them right now but she could try her hardest to keep Tsing away from them. She couldn't let either of them get taken again. They were both still so weak from the earlier extractions, there was no way in hell they would be able to survive any more.
Two guards march forward and grab onto the blonde girls arms. Grace moves quickly, attempting to shove the two guards off of her friends. They almost stumble in surprise at her strength but they quickly regain their strength. Grace shoves the one closest to her, shouting at them to let her friend go. She was too weak now.
Tsing walks forwardly swiftly and confidently. "No, not her. She needs more time to recover.
Harper falls back and into her redheaded friends arms, Grace immediately tightening her hold on the girl. Grace shoves Monty behind her as she places a fierce glare on the doctor in front of her. If she even tried to touch her friends, Grace wouldn't think twice about killing her.
Tsing steps to the side, allowing herself a look at the whole group. She pauses for a couple of seconds as she searches for a healthier face. Her dark eyes lock on Max's and she raises her hand to point a thin finger at him. "This one."
The two guards who had previously been trying to take Harper grab onto Max and pull him forward. Max turns his head around to send the girl a panicked look. She freezes, about to start forward and try and help him when Miller's hand curls tightly around her wrist. She turns to him, catching the way he shook his head slowly. He knows there is no way Grace will be able to get Max back without getting herself hurt or killed in the process.
"Stop!" Jasper hasn't seemed to come to the same conclusion Miller and Grace had. "You can't keep doing this to us." Tsing sends him a curious look as she beings stalking towards him and the others. Grace squints at the woman, tensing at the movement. Tsing seems to smile at her in amusement for a second, but it's gone a second later and Grace isn't even sure if it had been there at all. "President Wallace said we could go."
Tsing smirks. "That President Wallace is no longer in command. He had to step down for health reasons. I'm sorry it has to be like this," her eyes rake over the crowd. "I hope you know you're all incredibly special to us."
Grace clenches her fists tightly at her side. She tries her hardest not to sucker punch the bitch in the face, only fully stopping when Miller tightened his hold on her wrist.
"Clear out. Go."
Tsing walks out with the guards following quickly after her. They all hold their guns in everyones direction, a scare tactic Grace assumed. If they really needed their bone marrow then they wouldn't be able to kill them. They needed them alive.
Grace briefly searches the sea of barely visible faces of the guard and is relieved when she doesn't find Isaac or Bellamy among them. It means that they were both safe, Isaac probably in the mess hall or somewhere safe now that something was going down, and they were both alive.
She only hoped they'd get here before someone else was taken.
✦
"Grace," Miller's voice comes from beside her now. It's been almost an hour since Tsing had taken Max. Everyone had a feeling that the guards would be returning soon to take another one of their friends to their death. Grace turns around to send him a curious look. What was happening now? "How are you doing with the whole Bellamy being alive thing? Oh, and the fact that we're all being taken out and to a slow and painful death every couple of hours. That too."
Grace would've laughed at the blunt question if it had been any other situation. "Well, I'm still ninety percent sure that whoever Jasper saw was just a convenient look-alike to Bellamy sent from Satan himself to fuck up my emotions even more than they already are, and Max and whoever else is going to be taken out of here soon are probably going to die and the only thing I can do is link arms and hope for the best, so I think I'm doing pretty well."
Miller shook his head as he let out a quick sigh. "This is bullshit. Linking arms up like we're marching with those stupid flags on Unity Day isn't going to do shit and one of us is still going to go out there and fucking die so that these people can live."
Grace nods her head. "I agree with you. We need to fight back, hit them harder than this. Show them that we're not going down without a fight."
"With what weapons?"
"We can make our own," Grace gestures around to the bunks around them. "We can start stripping the beds. Push them in front of the doors, break the poles off and use them as weapons, the mattresses as blockades. We can go back harder than this."
"There's no time. The guards would just come in and shoot us up before we even had a chance to get the first mattress on the floor," Jasper buts in, walking over from where he was next to Monty. Grace sighs and runs a hand through her hair. She just wanted to leave Mount Weather and return to the dropship— or wherever Alpha Station had crashed.
"Fine," Grace whispers, her eyes connecting with Fox's terrified ones from across the room. Without another word, Grace opens her arms for the girl. Fox didn't waste any time in walking towards the girl and flinging herself into the redheads arms. Fox shoves her face Grace's neck.
Grace tightens her hold on the girl. She could feel her shaking in her arms. The redhead felt her chest tighten slightly. She would do anything for her people, especially if it meant that it bought them more time. Fox tightens her hold when Grace starts moving her backwards and towards the beds.
Judging by the medical books Clarke and her had repeatedly stolen from Abby back on The Ark, and if Grace could even remember anything inside of them properly after so many years of not having them around, in order to take all of the bone marrow out of a body you would need hours. Max hadn't been taken out that long ago so it meant they still had time, which meant Grace had time to calm Fox down and get her ready to fight when the time came.
"I'm scared," Fox whispers to the girl. Grace gives her hands two reassuring squeezes, though she's sure it probably did nothing to help her nerves.
"I know," Grace sends her a soft smile. "I'm scared too. But you know what this means, right?"
Fox shakes her head after a second, becoming confused. Grace sends her a smile. "Fear makes you strong. Allow it to fuel you instead of being the reason you fall," it was something she remembered telling her sister back on The Ark when she had nightmares. This was nothing compared to then, of course, but Grace was never that good at motivational speeches anyways. That was always Bellamy's thing. "So, since you're afraid, that means you're strong. You hear that? You're strong and you're going to survive this."
Fox nods her head. "I know you can't promise me, but could we just pretend you can for now?"
Grace feels her heart drop. She really couldn't promise Fox anything at all because she truly didn't know how any of this was going to end, she didn't know who would live or die or if they would even get out of this mountain. Grace swallows thickly, her tiny hands running through Fox's thick hair. "I promise you're going to survive this."
Grace had a feeling she just told the biggest lie of her life.
✦
Three hours has past since Max was taken. Everyone was readying themselves for when they inevitably came back for someone else. It had to be any minute now.
The buzz of the door unlocking catches everyone's attention. The forty four all rush to get into their positions, their hearts pounding in their chests.
Grace squeezes in beside Harper and a girl named Jessica, linking arms with them while Jasper instructed everyone else to get ready to fight back. Grace could feel the fear practically radiating off of her friends in thick waves. Grace holds a strong facade while inside her stomach was tossing and turning with anxiety.
Dr.Tsing emerges from the middle of her square of protection again, a thoughtful expression on her face as she searches the crowd for potential victims of her cruel torture. Her eyes find Grace's and she smirks. The redhead could feel her chest constrict in fear, but then she's pointing her unusually thin finger at Jessica and Grace isn't really sure she had even looked at her at all.
"No," Grace immediately says upon noticing her stare. She tightens her link with Jessica, a harsh glare being placed directly on the woman in front of her. She couldn't let her take her.
"This one," Tsing gestures to Jessica with a seemingly bored expression. Two more guards move forward to grab Jessica without a second thought. The others begin to fight back, clawing and shoving at them. The guards punch and kick and all but shoot anyone in the way of getting to the chosen girl. One guard wraps a hand around her bicep, ripping her from Harper's tight grip and shoving her roughly against the wall.
"Grace, it's me," the panicked voice of Isaac whispers in her ear. Grace tenses against his grip on her becomes stronger. The panic that flickers through her gut is enough to cause her to resist his touch. She thought he was on her side. He wasn't on her side? Why was he doing this? "Stop resisting, Parker."
Grace cries out in pain as he twists her arm at an awkward angle, her shoulder feeling as though it was about to pop out of place. "Listen to me. Bellamy is alive. Maya and I are helping him sneak around here. Listen, they're killing your friends. You all need to fight back next time, use weapons. Bellamy is with Jasper, he's giving him a gun. I would've gotten you one, too, but it would've been too suspicious." A pause. "Try not to die."
"You too," Grace grunts in response. She knew she could trust him. He hadn't betrayed her, after all.
Grace's wrists felt as if they would split open again at any moment and she was extremely thankful for the fact that they had finally healed. All that was left now was these ugly scars twisting around her wrists and over her veins. Now that she thought about it, she wasn't sure how she hadn't bled out during the fight. It made no since, really. Although, with the alternative way being having all of her pigment quite literally removed from her body with absolutely no anesthetic, Grace figured bleeding out would've been the better option.
"Everything okay, you two?" An older appeared to be calling out to Isaac and someone else, though Grace wasn't sure who due to the concrete while she was currently shoved against. Her cheek scratches roughly against it, her clenching her jaw to stop herself from letting out a hiss.
"Yes, sir," another, extremely familiar voice answered. Grace's heart practically gave out upon hearing the rough voice.
Before she can even process the fact that Bellamy Blake was less than a few feet from her, Grace is being removed from the wall and slammed up against the bunk. A knee connects with her stomach as she falls to the floor. She gasps for air, feeling as bough her all of the air had been forced out of her lungs. She heaves for air.
"Jesus, Byrne," the older guy comments as he watches Grace slump to the floor with her arms wrapped around her stomach. "Maybe you should calm down. Dr.Tsing needs them alive."
"Yes, sir," Isaac apologizes in a firm voice. He stalks forward with the other guard— Bellamy, Grace realizes with a start. She could tell almost immediately by his freckles, his curls, and even his walk. The two of them leave, following directly after Jessica and the other guards. Grace can't help but hoe that he turns to send her a nod of his head, for reassurance, but Bellamy keeps a straight face and saunters back out of the dorm with little to no emotion.
Grace's gaze drifts towards Jasper. She's just barely able to make out the glint of the metal now laying loosely in his hands. Isaac had told her the truth, which meant he was on their side. It also means that Maya is on their side and that Bellamy was alive and had snuck into Mount Weather to rescue them all.
Grace feels herself tense up. Something was going to happen, something bad. There was too much good news for there not to be some bad coming soon. She was scared to find out just what it would be.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
So, this chapter was kind of wild. Grace finally saw Bellamy, but apparently I was being evil when I made this and decided for Bellamy not to hand the gun over to Grace instead of Jasper. Which basically means they've only really seen each other but they've never been able to actually touch or say anything to each other.
Yeah, I know. It's hurting me too.
Also, there's like three more chapters after this and that's it. . . AHHHH.
QOTD: when do you think I will allow them to meet again? If they do, anyways.
Vote, comment, and may we meet again.
Gif | Grace when Jasper is talking about Bellamy