E I G H T

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"PLEASE TELL ME they brought down some shampoo." A girl said, making Harlai laugh quietly. She could definitely use some shampoo.

Bellamy, Octavia, Harlai, and three other guys went back in Bellamy's tent to discuss what was happening. Finn and Clarke were nowhere to be seen. This made Harlai smile to herself, though. Clarke was getting some.

"If it cleared the ridge, it's probably near the lake." The guy told Bellamy.

"We should get moving. Everyone's ready." Octavia said, but Bellamy just shook his head.

"No one's going anywhere." This statement made the other three look at Bellamy with incredulous expressions. "Not while it's dark. It isn't safe. We'll head out at first light. Pass the word."

The three guys walked out of the tent, leaving Octavia and Harlai with Bellamy.

"Everyone for one hundred miles saw this thing come down." Harlai pointed out as she looked at Bellamy. This surprised him, that she was actually talking to him after their little moment.

"Yeah, what if the grounders get to it first?" Octavia asked, stepping over closer to Bellamy. "Bell, we should go now."

"She's right, Bellamy." Harlai watched as his eyes locked onto hers, but she grimaced as she heard his next reply.

"I said we wait until sunrise." Bellamy's voice was stern. As Harlai looked away with a shake of her head, Bellamy looked to Octavia with an expression to match his tone.

Harlai let out a quiet huff and she turned, walking out of the tent. No matter how much she always spoke her mind, Bellamy and Clarke were always quick to put her ideas down. Not tonight. Bellamy said that all she ever did was sit around while everyone else worked, so she was going to go do something for once.

Her feet began to have a mind of their own as they walked towards where the pod landed. She paused when she reached the edge of camp and she let out a soft sigh. You can do this Harlai. It's just a scary and dark forest filled with grounders. What's the worst that could happen?

She was about to walk out of the camp when she felt someone grab her arm and tug her back. Harlai lost her footing and stumbled into what felt like a stone wall, but as she tilted her head up, she saw that it was Bellamy. "What are you doing?"

Harlai blinked once she realized how she stayed in his arms for a moment, enjoying the warmth that emitted from his sculpted body. She quickly pulled away and she turned to face him. "I'm going to the pod." With that, she whirled around and began to walk away only to have him step in front of her.

"Like hell you are." Bellamy had lowered his voice into a tone that was meant to scare her, but she only curled her lips into a smile.

"You aren't the boss of me, Bellamy Blake." She quirked an eyebrow as she crossed her arms over her chest. Her eyes then dragged over his body, not to just look at his crafted muscles, but to see that he was carrying a bag. "Huh, you're going to the pod, too."

Bellamy blinked as she came to this conclusion and he glanced down at his bag that had been strung over his shoulder, food for the night being in there just in case he didn't make it back until the next day.

"Fine." He muttered as his dark gaze landed onto Harlai once again.

"Fine what?"

"Fine as in you're coming with me. I don't need you snitching on me to Clarke." He then stuffed his hand into the backpack he had been carrying and tossed Harlai a knife. Her hands shot out to try and catch the falling, sharp object and she awkwardly fumbled with it. "Don't slow me down."

With that, Bellamy Blake turned on his heel and began walking toward the pod. Unfortunately for Harlai, he walked the total opposite way that she had been going earlier. Wrinkling her freckle-spotted nose up, Harlai followed beside the taller man.

Bellamy's pace picked up as the sun began to rise, this meaning that the kids at the camp would know soon that he had lied to them. Harlai was having a hard time keeping up, her shorter legs not going as fast and her feet tripping constantly over roots or other objects.

"Bellamy!" The man halted to a stop as he heard his younger sister's voice, Harlai skidding and running into him. He just nudged her away as their eyes fell onto Octavia.

"What are you doing?" Octavia asked, only for Bellamy to respond with the usual 'my-sister-my-responsibility' concern.

"Go back to camp. It isn't safe."

"You lied to everyone. You lied to me. You just want whatever's in that pod-" Octavia was cut off as Bellamy pushed past Harlai and shoved his mini-me back. "Just go home!"

"You always wanna play the big brother, huh? Well, guess what? Joke's on me." Octavia stepped up to him as she spoke and Harlai just inched backwards. This wasn't going to turn out good and she wasn't going to get caught in the middle of it. "You're just a selfish dick."

"I did this for you." Bellamy replied as he stared down at Octavia. "To protect you. If The Ark finds out we're alive, they'll come down. And when they do... I'm dead."

The last comment made both of the girls grow looks of confusion. "What did you do?" Harlai asked, her brows furrowing as Bellamy looked at her.

"I shot him." He finally told the truth as he turned his head to look at Octavia. "I shot Jaha."

Harlai recoiled as she stared at the taller man. Out of all the things that Bellamy did when Harlai knew him, this was the worst. Shooting someone with the intention of killing them? Death took a toil at whoever spilled the blood and Bellamy was paying the fare.

"What?" Octavia breathed out as she looked at him, a horrified expression on her face.

"I found out they were sending you to Earth. I couldn't let you go alone." Bellamy's voice began to tremble as Harlai's eyes fell to the ground, barely being able to stand to look at him. "Someone came to me with a deal; do this, kill him and they'd get me on the dropship. And I did it."

"You killed the Chancellor?"

"He floated our mother." Bellamy tried to reason with Octavia, his voice growing desperate. "He locked you up. He deserved it."

"I didn't ask you to do that." Octavia replied with a shake of her head.

"You're right." Bellamy nodded as he looked at his younger sister. "I made the choice. This is on me. Whatever they sent down, I'll take care of it."

"I didn't ask for any of this." Octavia looked over him as her eyes began to well up with tears and with that, she began to walk away.

There was a pause of silence as Bellamy watched his sister go and then he glanced at the other girl. "Harlai-"

"I know you are capable of a lot of things, Bellamy, but I never knew you were capable of that." She muttered before turning to walk away as well, but towards the pod.

Bellamy just let out a quiet sigh before following behind her. His eyes fell on her back as they walked in silence. This time was different. Anytime he did the wrong thing before, Harlai would be mad at him, but this time she was disappointed and that was the worst.

The man just shook his head as he walked, not understanding why he cared what she thought. Harlai was thinking the same thing.

•••

THE TWO WALKED UP to the crashed pod. The outside of it looked like a burnt marshmallow and Harlai wondered if anything inside had survived. Bellamy walked straight to it and tore open the door.

As Harlai walked up, she could hear someone talking over the radio. "Is there anyone in there?"

He didn't respond as he pulled out his knife and cut something. He pulled away and shut the door to the pod, glancing over at Harlai with a shake of his head. "They're dead."

"Dammit." Harlai muttered as Bellamy began to walk away, following suit behind him. "What are you doing?"

Her eyes flickered down to the thing he had pulled out only to see it was a radio. She grinned widely, but her smile faltered once she realized they weren't headed for the camp.

They both stopped at a creek and Harlai's emerald eyes widened. "Bellamy, don't."

He glanced over at the young woman and then down at the radio, his mind racing with thoughts. Then, he reared his arm back and chucked the radio into the creek. Their only source of contact with The Ark.

"Bellamy!" Harlai yelled and her jaw clenched. She rushed over to him before pressing her palms to his chest, shoving him towards the creek. "Are you insane?! Who cares if you fucking shot the Chancellor? That was our only hope!"

Bellamy stumbled back and grabbed onto her arms, but she continued to pound into his chest. Her eyes began to fill with tears as she thought of her mom. Bellamy just wrapped his strong arms around her, mostly to keep her arms at her sides, but also to comfort her.

That was when the tears broke past her eyelids and began to stream down her face to which she stuffed into his chest. Her words came out muffled, but Bellamy was able to still hear them as they broke his heart. "Now how is my mom going to know I'm still alive?"

He held her for a second as she cried into his chest, her hands clutching onto his shirt. She didn't even care if he thought that she was just some scared little girl because they all were, well, scared. That's why Bellamy did this because he was scared for himself. He was scared that the people from The Ark would come down and kill him if they knew they were all alive.

Bellamy waited for a few moments as he looked down at the girl in his arms. He even began to rub his callused hands over her back to try and calm her down. After she did, he cleared his throat and pulled away, leaving Harlai feeling cold as his warmth left her.

"We need to go now before the others find us here." He mumbled as he pushed past her and back towards the camp. The young woman let out a soft sigh and she wiped the tears from her face before walking after him.

Harlai wrapped her arms around her small torso as she thought about what happened. Her blank eyes stared in front of her, watching as Bellamy ran ahead only to be caught by Clarke just as they were about to make it back to camp.

"Hey!" She yelled just as she ran up to him and she grabbed his arm. "Where is it?"

"Hey, Princess. You taking a walk in the woods?" He nonchalantly asked as Harlai walked up.

Clarke's eyes fell onto the other girl and her eyebrows furrowed. Harlai raised her hands, her voice coming out monotoned. "I tried to stop him, Clarke."

The blonde's face softened as she heard this statement and she turned back to Bellamy. "They're getting ready to kill three hundred people up there to save oxygen and I can guarantee you it won't be council members. It'll be working people. Your people." She said the last part as she poked him in the chest.

"Bellamy!" Finn raced past Harlai and he slammed his hands into the other man, sending him back a bit. "Where's the radio?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Bellamy shoved him back just as hard.

Harlai's eyes fell onto a brown headed woman and her eyes widened when she realized who it was. "Raven." She breathed out, but she was too busy looking at Bellamy.

The two had been best friends, almost sisters, ever since they were little. Raven's mom was close with Harlai's until she became a drunk. Harlai's mom used to give Raven half of her rations since Raven's was too busy trading hers for moonshine.

"Bellamy Blake? They're looking everywhere for you."

"Shut up." Bellamy's tone was cold as he barely glanced at Raven.

"Raven." Harlai walked up to the girl who finally turned her head. Raven's eyes brightened as she saw Harlai and she immediately gave her a quick hug, stepping back to look at her with a grin.

"I thought you were dead, Har." She gave her shoulder a squeeze and then Raven's face saddened.

The look on her face made Harlai's heart skip a beat. "W-What?"

But Clarke interrupted their little reunion as she looked at Raven, her face growing an expression of confusion, Finn's too. "Looking for him why?"

Raven tore her gaze from Harlai as her hand fell to her side, a small smirk growing onto her lips as she looked from Clarke to Bellamy. "He shot Chancellor Jaha."

The other two looked at Bellamy who kept his eyes away from them, glancing over at Harlai who wouldn't even look at him at the moment. "That's why you took the wristbands. Needed everyone to think we're dead." Clarke said.

"And all that 'whatever the hell we want?'" Finn asked, Bellamy's eyes finding him momentarily.

"You just care about saving your own skin." Harlai mumbled, Bellamy's face contorting in guilt as he looked at her.

"Harlai-" Bellamy began before shaking his head and turning, continuing to walk away.

The other three followed him as Raven yelled at Bellamy. Harlai couldn't take it anymore. She needed a break from all of the constant fighting. She didn't even give a fuck if she was taken by Grounders at this point.

As the four of them were too busy fighting, Harlai turned on her heel and began making her way through the forest. Maybe even in her time she would try to find something useful to do.

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WORD COUNT: 2380

This took foooorever! But I'm glad I got it done :) Bellamy keeps throwing him and Harlai's relationship in a shredder, but he has those large bandaids that can fix it up in no time... or does he?

hA