Bold= Swedish, as always :)
T H I R T Y | EMBRACING THE INNER-SWEDISH
"I need a wrench."
Usually, Finn Collins was woken by subtle movements of his girlfriend getting ready in the mornings, or by the gentle murmur of the Hundred as they all stirred outside. Though on that particular morning, he was woken by the rushed voice of his best friend as she darted into his tent, uninvited, loudly claiming that she needed a wrench. He was planning on pretending to be asleep so she would leave him half-undisturbed and he could go back to sleep. But then he felt a harsh shove of a boot in his back and came to the conclusion that Carter wasn't going to leave him alone until she knew where the tool she was looking for was.
So, reluctantly, he slowly rolled over to look up at his best friend, not bothering to hide his annoyance. He could only just see her face through the darkness. It wasn't even dawn yet, and she was waking him up.
When Carter noticed she had his attention, she repeated, "Oh good, you're awake. I need a wrench."
"Do I look like I'm the keeper of wrenches to you?" Finn quirked a tired eyebrow. "Why do you want a wrench?"
"I'm bored and I wanna make something that requires a few bolts from the Drop ship Thus needing a wrench to loosen the bolts." She explained with a sigh, before quickly waving him off. "Don't worry about it, I'll find something else to do."
"Good, now can I go back to sleep like a normal person?" Finn asked, his voice croaky from not using it in a long time. The atmosphere between the two of them had became a lot clearer and lighter after Carter could finally tell him about Shumway and the threat he used over her. Finn was disheartened that she couldn't come to him at first and that Bellamy knew before himself, but after a few moments of sulking like a two-year-old he understood why Bellamy knew and why Carter didn't say anything. Now that there was nothing kept back between them (except minor things like how Dax shot Carter and then Bellamy killed Dax and how Finn's feelings for Clarke wouldn't stop growing.)
"Whatever, jackass." Carter murmured with dissatisfied sigh, leaving the tent and making her way towards the campfire. If she couldn't make anything, she could at least stare at the flames until everyone else was up. Her sleep pattern was beyond screwed and she found herself going to sleep an hour or so after everyone else and then waking up just before dawn. There was even a few times during the day that Finn had caught her napping. She didn't even know how she was going off only a few hours sleep, but she preferred it. She felt more alert.
"Happy Unity Day!" A sudden voice cheered from behind her, startling her out of her thoughts. She whipped her head around to see the familiar figure of Steven, holding a gun firmly to his chest. Steven often accompanied Carter in the mornings with his mindless chatter since he was the only one up that wasn't on watch. His shift usually ended as Carter stumbled out of her tent.
"Dammit, are you never not happy in the mornings?" Carter winced at.the loudness of his voice. Steven chuckled and sat down next to her, placing his gun delicately on the ground.
"So, you'll never guess who was born on Unity Day, sixteen years ago..." Steven grinned happily.
"I'm gonna take a wild stab in the dark and say you?" Carter quirked an eyebrow to which Steven rapidly shook his head to. "Happy birthday, little man."
"What?"
"Happy birthday." Carter translated with an eye roll. Steven smiled his thanks and picked his gun back up with the intention to fiddle with it, but as he brought it up it smacked Carter in the side of the face, almost knocking her off the log. "Jesus Steven! Watch what you're doing with that thing, you could take a damn eye out." She grumbled, rubbing at her temple where the butt of the gun had hit.
"Oh my god, I am so sorry, I'm such an idiot. How stupid can I be?" Steven gushed out, placing a hand on Carter's shoulder. She quirked an eyebrow at him but he paid it no mind. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," She smiled in amusement at his obvious remorse. How do they expect this guy to kill living people when he feels so much guilt for just hitting someone in the head by accident? Though Carter found herself questioning Steven's fascination with death more. The kid felt a lot of remorse for someone who wanted go out and hunt animals. "I just hope your aim is better than how you pick a gun up."
"It is." The teen nodded his head, suddenly full of pride. "I can now almost hit the middle of the target." Carter raised her eyebrows, impressed with his ability. Over the few days that had passed since their day trip, Bellamy had offered to teach Carter how to shoot a gun properly and even though she was still no red-hot assassin, she was improving and on the previous day she had managed to shoot the center of the target, which she instantly began to brag about making Bellamy roll his eyes at her egotistical behaviour. He was beginning to grow accustomed to her sudden big-headed moments.
Just before Carter could resume her conversation with the shaggy-haired boy, she noticed a familiar figure tiredly leaving her tent and Carter instantly shot up, throwing a 'talk to you later' over her shoulder towards Steven and jogged her way up to Kara. Just before she had reached her destination, the brunette spotted Carter and the neutral expression on her face dropped into a somewhat more sour one. Carter winced slightly at her hostility, but continued to approach the girl, nonetheless.
"If your here to yell at me again, can you wait until I'm fully awake?" Kara mumbled bitterly, not meeting Carter's gaze.
"Actually," The blonde began with an apologetic smile. "I'm here to say sorry."
"... What?"
"Okay, I don't say this much so you better not get used to it, but I was wrong." Carter had to literally force her words out of her. She hardly ever apologized and it was even rarer to hear her say she was wrong. Kara's face remained emotionless and Carter sighed. "I am sorry for over-reacting the other night. Truth is, I understand why you did what you did, I mean I'm not a massive fan of how you did it but it's done. I don't want any grudges to be held between us because I was a bitch, and come on, what better day to apologize than Unity Day." Carter laughed lightly but then suddenly concluded it was inappropriate and covered it up with a cough. "So, yeah, I'm sorry."
Kara scrutinized Carter's expression for any telltale signs that Carter was lying but when she found none, she sighed. "Okay, fine, I forgive you. Just next time you decide to chew me out, make sure you've got all the facts."
"Noted." Carter nodded with a small smile. They began to walk back to the campfire where Steven still sat and Carter noted how much lighter the camp had gotten. Dawn was upon them which meant the camp would be waking up soon. "So, Unity Day, huh?" She breathed, breaking the silence between herself and Kara.
"Unity Day is great," Kara smiled, sitting herself down on the log beside Steven. "I love it."
"The masquerade dance was the best." Steven piped up, smiling stupidly. "It was so mysterious."
"That's pretty much the whole point of the the 'masquerade' part of it," Carter pointed out with a smirk. She looked up at the sky, which was painted a cool light peach color from the morning sun. "I'ts going to be our first Unity Day without our families."
" It's gonna be our first Unity Day on the ground," Steven added, following her gaze up to where they expected the Ark would be. A thoughtful look on his face.
"Well then, we should make the most of it," Kara's voice took an upbeat tone. "It's our first and last Unity Day where we can do what we want, because when they come down, things are gonna change for us. So, let's make this the best delinquent Unity Day earth has to offer!"
"Here here," Carter cheered quietly, a smile on her face.
The three of them kept up mindless chatter until the sun had fully risen in the sky-- only then to be smothered by thick, grey clouds-- and the rest of the Hundred had began to leave the comfort of their own tents. That's when Steven made a sleepy departure, saying he wanted to catch a few hours of sleep before the real party began and Kara had decided she had some stuff she needed to do before she could fully enjoy the day they were to celebrate. Carter took the opportunity to finally find a wrench, which was firmly in Clarke's grip.
"Finn said you were looking for this?"
"Yes! Where did you find it?" Carter asked, gratefully accepting tool off of her friend.
"Beside your bed." Clarke smirked and Carter felt the urge to facepalm herself for not checking beside her makeshift cot. Go figure. "Happy Unity Day, by the way."
"Happy Unity Day to you, too." Carter grinned. "It's also Steven's birthday, he's sixteen now." She took a moment with a thoughtful expression before asking, "When's your birthday, Clarke?"
"We've been down here for, what, the best of three weeks..." Clarke trailed off, a concentrating frown etched on her face. "And when I was in the Skybox it was a month until my birthda-"
"-Woah, hold up. So you're telling me your birthday may have already passed?" Carter flicked up her eyebrows. "And you haven't said anything?"
"There's more pressing matters than my birthday, Carter." Clarke sighed at the blonde's obvious shock. Just before Carter could even voice her thoughts, a boy had ran up to the two of them, clutching his nose as blood dripped wildly from the gaps between his fingers. Both girls' faces broke out with alarm. "What happened?"
"Miller and I were just goofing off and I fell off of the camp wall." The boy explained in an unnecessary nasally voice.
"Idiot." Carter mumbled under her breath upon realizing he didn't cause himself any real damage.
"Come on, let's go check you haven't broken it."Clarke instructed in her usual professional and almost-motherly tone. She turned to Carter and smirked ever-so lightly, grateful the topic of her birthday could be dropped. "I'd hate to cut our conversation short but I have work to do."
"Oh you are sorely mistaken if you think I'm done talking to you, Clarke." Carter vowed, walking backwards away from her friend. Clarke almost grimaced at the hard determination in Carter's green eyes. Silently, both girls turned to their tasks in hand. Clarke focused on patching up the boy's nose and Carter focused on trying to make some efficient, makeshift equipment for around camp, though she was silently planning a way for Clarke to fully embrace turning eighteen. God knows, none of them knew if they were going to see their next.
***
"Hey, you coming to watch Jaha's speech?" Raven asked jogging up beside Carter as she strode across camp, though when her friend joined her, she slowed her pace. A few hours had passed and Carter had already done what she had wished to do regarding the wrench and instead had a different idea of how to kill time.
"Hell no, I have better things to do with my time," Carter scoffed, entering the tent that harboured all of their weapons and ammunition. Raven was hot on her trail, an eyebrow raised incredulously. "Oh come on R, his speech is the same damn thing every year. The only difference is he'll talk about coming to the ground."
"So what are you planning to do instead?" Raven asked, glancing around at the discarded bullets. "Please don't tell me you're gonna find out what ones are usable, because knowing you, you'll only end up hurting yourself."
"The lack of faith you have in me is wounding," Carter feigned hurt, placing her hand over her heart in a dramatic manner. When she realized Raven wasn't buying her theatrics, she rolled her eyes. "No I'm not even going to touch the bullets. That's your job, oh-so-mighty Mechanic. Instead, I'm going to take apart one of the guns and see if I can put it back together. If that goes well, then I'll see if I can work my awesome engineer mojo on them, you know, make them better."
"I'm starting to think they made you an engineer just because of your arrognace..." Raven teased, nudging Carter playfully. Carter merely shrugged in response, not coming up with an argument. "Anyway, I've got a speech to watch, you carry on with whatever it is you do."
"Okie dokie." Carter mumbled, already stuck into her work. For the most part, she had no idea what she was doing with the guns, she had never worked with weapons before-- they never really interested her enough on the Ark-- and even if she had, the set-up of guns manufactured over ninety-seven years ago and guns on the Ark are polar opposites. Sure, they both shoot, are initiated by a trigger and look a little similar, but that was it. When she finally managed to take it all apart she really wished she had left the damn thing alone. It was even more complicated in pieces than it was together, and that in itself was saying something. As she attempted to put the gun back together, operative word being 'attempted', she heard the tent flap behind her open and she quickly shot up out of her chair and leaned against the table, hiding the dismantled gun with her body.
Monty frowned at her awkward position. "Uh, are you okay?"
"Yup, yes, I'm good." Carter forced a smile, blocking his view whenever he tried to look around her. "Is, uh, is there a reason you're in here."
"Yeah," Monty nodded, diverting his attention back to Carter seemingly forgetting about her odd behaviour. "Guess who has successfully made some magic juice to get this Unity Day party started?"
"No way..." Carter trailed off, her eyes widening a fraction.
"Yes way," Monty grinned. "It took a lot of effort and a lot of my amazing brain power, but I've done it! You should come out and get some while it's still fresh."
Just as Carter was about to make a beeline for the alcohol, she remembered the mess she had left the gun in on the table. "I will be there in five, I've, uh, got to sort some... things out."
"Okay, but you better be good at the drinking games because they've already started."
"Challenge accepted."
***
"They tell me you're on the first Exodus ship." Vera spoke slowly her her son as she approached him. Kane turned his head to gaze at his mother sidelong before looking back at the small reenactment of Unity Day in front of him. He hadn't spoken to his mom since she told him to tell Carter the truth. He tried to push down the guilt he felt by justifying it with the fact that he had been too busy.
"Yes," Kane nodded once, his eyes still focused on the children who were formed into a circle, each one with a different flag symbolizing the country they were meant to portray. "Carter is my main priority but I'll also be overseeing the security once we're down."
"Will you tale the tree down for me?" Vera asked with a soft smile. Though Kane swallowed his need to sigh. The way his mother regards the small tree was something Kane had stopped understanding in his teens. He didn't get why she felt the incessant need to preserve the tree and treat it so religiously. In the beginning, it was because Kane had always thought earth was a hopeless case, but now-- even when he knows the ground is inhabitable, he almost felt embarrassed by his mother's love for that small tree.
"Mom, I have a job to do." Kane dismissed as politely as he could manage.
"Well at least come to the departure ceremony," Vera pushed again. "You could give it the Travellor's blessing. Think of it as a goodbye gift to your mother. I know Carter would love to hear you do something like that."
"She hated those ceremonies, mom," Kane reminded Vera, remembering how fidgety Carter was whenever they attended one of those ceremonies-- before Mia died-- and how much the little blonde used to complain about how long they were. "Besides, I don't remember it," Kane lied, hoping to get his mother off his case. Though when he saw the disappointment pool in Vera's eyes he felt an overbearing amount of guilt. He needed to get out of there, he didn't want to see his mom like that. "Excuse me," He muttered, passing her.
It wasn't more than a few minutes later that he heard the loud bang of the sudden explosion ringing in his ears and the heat suffocate his lungs. Luckily, he was far enough away from it that he sustained no damage, though the same couldn't be said for some of the others. Disorientated, Kane's eyes scanned the bodies, most thankfully were alive, though there was one that stuck out and his heart dropped. His mom.
No.
***
"Okay, I wanna hear everybody sing it this time!" Carter shouted, blissfully unaware of what tragic lay on her former home. She stood on top of a makeshift table, a cup of half-full alcohol in one hand as she tried to keep her balance. She looked down at the small crowd of the Hundred that had gathered below her feet and she cleared her throat. "One, two, three!"
"Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall, ninety-nine bottles of beer! Take one down and pass it around, ninety-eight bottles of beer on the wall!" They all chorused. It was completely out of tune and they were out of sync with each other but Carter cheered nonetheless, the effects of Monty's 'Unity juice' really hitting her at full-effect. Unlike most people, Carter wasn't good when it came to holding down her alcohol and it didn't take much to get her drunk. This time was no exception. Though, the perk of being a lightweight was after a glass or two of water and a few minutes to catch her bearings, Carter would begin to sober up pretty quick and she would very rarely feel the whole 'hangover' part of drinking.
She jumped off the table and skipped her way through the crowd until she saw a small ring of people surrounding two girls who looked were both doing handstands. She watched curiously until one girl fell down, cussing as she did and took a shot. It was Kara. Suddenly intrigued with the odd drinking game, Carter nudged her way to the front.
"So how do you play this one?" Carter asked with a raised eyebrow. The other girl who was doing a handstand got back up to her feet and dusted her hands down.
"You both do handstands until one of you fall down. The loser takes a shot-- it's that simple," Monroe explained with a shrug. "Try it. But be warned, it does make you feel pretty sick afterwards."
"Don't worry about me, I got it." Carter smirked, eyeing Kara with a challenging expression.
"Ready to lose, Sparky?" Kara teased.
"Hit me with your best shot, Renolds." Carter retorted playfully. Both girls readied themselves and on Monroe's count to three, they both fell into a handstand.
Now here's something that not many people knew about Carter. Whenever she was bored and had to stay indoors, she did all sorts of odd things to keep herself mildly entertained. Handstands included. She considered herself a pro at them. Although, usually when she did them, she was halfway to being intoxicated, so it was a bit wobbly at first.
For the most part, no one knew who was going to lose considering both girls were going strong. That was until Carter felt her torso leaning to one side and her balance began to wobble and she tried to correct it, though as she did she saw Kara shaking too and before either of them could restore themselves, they both fell. Though it was just Carter's luck that she hit the ground first.
"Dammit." Carter muttered, standing to her feet and holding her hand out to help Kara up. "I was so close to victory I could almost taste it."
"Yeah, but you still lost so..." Kara turned around and passed Carter a small metallic cup, "You gotta do a shot!" Carter took the small cup off the brunette and without even thinking, chucked the substance down her throat, wincing as it left a fiery trail in it's wake
"Okay, I need to go find something else to do, that's less pride wounding," Carter muttered, giving Kara a half-hearted wave as she set off again trying to find something else to do, She had spent most of the night trying all sorts of different drinking games and for a long time, she managed to win the majority of them, and then all of a sudden her luck vanished and it was her that had to take the losing shots. She was about to go over to Jasper so they could start annoying Monty together, but then she saw a familiar blonde stride through the camp and over towards the other leader.
"Clarke!" Carter hollered, jogging her way up to the two leaders. To her, her jog seemed pretty normal. To anyone else with eyes, they noticed it wasn't exactly in a straight line and she ran into several people in the short distance she had to cross.
"How much have you had to drink, Carter?" Clarke asked, the corners of her lips tugged into an amused smile.
"I have no idea, I lost count after the ninth shot." Carter shrugged, her words only slightly slurred. "I have to ask you something."
"What?"
"Did your parents name you after a boy too?" She cocked her head to the side and almost immediately Clarke furrowed her eyebrows with confusion and Carter quickly began explaining. "Because my parents thought I was going to come out a boy and my dad had always had his heart set on calling his little boy Carter, but taa-daa!" Carter's arms spread out as she did jazz hands. "I came out a girl! I was even disappointing my dad when I was in the womb," She snickered lightly. "And well, I was wondering, were you supposed to be a boy, too? Because y'know, being called Clarke."
"No, I was named after I was born." Clarke chuckled and Carter nodded slowly in acknowledgement.
"That's a possibility," Carter's expression turned into a lazy kind of thoughtfulness. "Or that's what they want you to think, so you weren't offended." She then frowned. "Not that Clarke's like a full-on guys name anyway, not like Carter. I like your name, it reminds me of a superhero I read about once..." She squinted her eyes in concentration. "All I remember is he flew around with a cape. Stupid right? I mean if humans could fly, a cape is more of a health and safety issue than a fashion statement."
"Okay, Carter," Bellamy raised his eyebrows, trying to hide his amusement. "I think it's time you stop drinking."
"I thought we had established you can't tell me what to do," Carter sent him a pointed look. Her face suddenly lost some of it's color and she grimaced as an unwelcome feeling shuddered down her spine. "Nope. You're right, Bell. I need to stop drinking. Man, I feel like I'm going throw up."
Bellamy tried not to look surprised when Carter called him his nickname that only a select few called him, even if she was drunk. He turned to Clarke and shrugged. "Go enjoy yourself, Clarke. I'll take care of her."
FORMALLY APOLOGISING NOW FOR THE STATE OF THIS CHAPTER I MADE MYSELF A VOW TO COMPLETE IT BEFORE I FELL ASLEEP AND I INTEND TO FOLLOW THROUGH WITH IT! I promise to edit it in the morning when it's not almost 2:30am. I honestly hope it wasn't too bad :L And I also promise you, the next chapter won't be so filler-ish.
Chapter 30, eh? I'm really dragging this whole 'slow-burn' thing out. But do not fear, it's gonna get better soon *hint hint*
Okay, I must go now and use the sleep because 'tired' has officially became an understatement.
Thank thou for reading!
EDITED: Genuinely don't remember writing half of that... That was how tired I was :L If you're reading this, then you probably didn't read the unedited version, which you shouldn't worry about too much, I just added in a few extra lines and corrected some mistakes. And can I just announce how freaking happy I am? Season 2 has finally been aired in the UK and while I've already seen them, I can't help but get all giddy when it comes on. And to make it all even better? They have finally let us have season nine of Supernatural and it's on right after The 100! My excitement has hit new levels... E4 is offically my spirit channel.