"And she scores!" I yelled, throwing hands up in triumph as yet another one of my balled up pieces of paper landed in the waste bin across the room. "I do believe that is yet another point for me."
Bryan jokingly rolled his eyes as he tallied off another point on our scoresheet. "How are you so good at this?" he questioned, looking up at me with an amused smile.
"Practice." I answered, looking over to him with a smile. "Don't worry, Bry. You'll get there eventually."
"Sure." he muttered, letting out a sigh as he leaned back in the chair he was currently seated in.
I let out an agitated groan as I shifted in the bed. "Tell me again why we can't be doing something?" I demanded, becoming increasingly agitated with the situation I was in.
"Because," Bryan answered, standing up and limping across the room. "You have a hole in your stomach and I'm sporting a matching one on my leg...we're not much help to anyone."
I sighed as I threw my head back. "I'm fine." I answered, "We're both fine. Jackson said that everything was healing up nicely so-"
"You have at least another week of rest." Bryan pointed out, handing me a cup of water. "So slow your roll."
"Oh," I mocked, "Sorry, 'Mister I only had to stay in bed for one day'."
Bryan laughed, plopping back down into his seat, throwing his legs up onto my bed. "Don't hate the player."
As much as I wanted to scowl at him, I couldn't help but break into a smile. Truth was, Bryan was currently the only thing keeping me sane.
After I had woken up on the cold hard ground of the Throne Room the day of the battle, things seemed to have been mostly resolved.
Clarke had shut down the City of Light and killed ALIE, everyone who had been chipped returned to their normal selves.
As for me, the gunshot wound to my stomach luckily turned out to be a through shot, no internal organs seeming to have been hit.
What had almost killed me was the loss of blood. I had lost so much by the time Murphy offered to donate his own that it had almost been irreversible.
But luckily, Murphy had essentially saved my life. The smug smirk on his face when I awoke proved that he was pretty proud of himself.
However, despite the promise from Abby that I was going to be fine after a few days rest, I was shipped out of Polis with the rest of our people, save for Bellamy, and the rest of my friends.
Upon my departure, I had been informed that Azgeda was attempting to take over the capital, so of course Clarke, Bellamy and Octavia had a plan to stop them. Unfortunately, I was exempt from this plan, both Abby and Bellamy demanding that I return to Arkadia and rest.
Bellamy.
We had barely had a chance to really speak since everything happened. He had been there when I woke up, but so had a dozen other people. Our interaction had been kept to a short, but tight embrace and the promise to discuss things later.
Thus, that brings us to the present, two days after we left Polis, in which I'm confined to a bed while Bryan sits here to keep me company, medically cleared but unable to return to his guard position for at least another day.
Raven, Monty, Jasper and Harper had come to see me briefly, but I knew all of them were busy taking on whatever next task we had to face.
Speaking of, the look in Raven's eye told me she knew something I didn't, but she had remained silent nonetheless.
I knew that we had achieved our goal of shutting down ALIE, but for some reason I didn't feel completely content...it felt like something else was looming over the horizon, and that worried me...it worried me a lot.
---
It was later in the morning when the door to mine and Bellamy's quarters opened. I had my back to the door, trifling through the piles of our things in search of something to keep me entertained.
"So, I'm thinking we switch up the game today." I called to Bryan, not bothering to turn around and look at him. "I know you just love getting your ass beat in the paper toss game, but I'm honestly getting sick of winning..." I trailed off, finally finding what I was looking for. "We could play checkers?"
I was met with silence...maybe Bryan didn't like checkers?
When I finally turned around, I realized why I hadn't received a response from Bryan. Because it wasn't Bryan standing in the doorway watching me with a smile, but someone completely different.
"Bellamy." I whispered, relief flooding through every part of my body.
He didn't say anything, just took a few large strides across the room, lightly pulling me into his body.
I felt myself melt into him, burying my face against chest. I could have stayed like that forever it seemed.
When Bellamy pulled away it felt as all the warmth had been taken from my body. "You should sit down." he advised, his eyes falling toward my abdomen.
I rolled my eyes, but took a seat on the bed nonetheless. "I'm okay, Bell."
The way he watched me, it was as if I was going to break at any minute. He watched each move I made, his lips pushed together in worry.
"Why are you staring at me like that?" I demanded, becoming slightly uncomfortable under his gaze.
Bellamy opened his mouth and then quickly closed it, as if he didn't know what he wanted to say. A sad sigh escaped his lips before he finally spoke, his voice wavering. "You died, Avery."
It felt like a heavy weight had been placed on my chest, the room seeming to cloud in melancholy.
I had known that I had died. I mean I wasn't seeing my dead twin brother and friends for the heck of it, but hearing the words said out loud caused me to really think about it.
I remained silent, watching as Bellamy slowly lowered himself into the chair across from the bed. "You died, and I couldn't do anything to save you." he admitted. "It was Murphy who brought you back...Murphy of all people."
"Geez," I muttered under my breath, "Guess I really do owe him now."
Bellamy looked up at me, his face distraught. "I'm sorry." he breathed, "For everything."
I shook my head, quickly pushing myself out of the bed so I could kneel in front of him. Taking his hand in mine, I gave him a small smile. "You don't have to be sorry, Bell. Everything that happened...that's in the past, okay? We're both here, we're both okay. So please, stop beating yourself up."
Cupping my face in his hands, Bellamy pulled me closer to him. "I love you."
I nodded, a grateful smile coming to my face. "I know...and I love you."