contents under pressure; ❛ RULES ❜
↷ the hundred
❝ this isn't how we do things down here❞

"This is Raven Reyes calling Ark Station!"

Clarke tore her eyes away from Wells' unconscious body at the sound of Gabriella and Raven speaking into the radio, trying to reach The Ark. They needed to contact Abby Griffin because she was the only one with enough medical skills to save Wells' life.

Gabriella took the radio from Raven's hands. "Come in, Ark Station. This is Gabriella Kane and Raven Reyes, calling Ark Station."

The mechanic and engineer had been doing this for the past hour while the dropship was getting more crowded with noisy teenagers by the second. And the sound of the storm - which was probably tearing the entire camp to pieces - outside the dropship didn't make them feel less pressured.

"Please, come in." Gabriella repeated, her frustration clear by the hint of aggression in her voice.

"'You sure you have the right frequency?" Finn decided to ask, peering over his girlfriend's shoulder to look down at the mess of strings.

"Maybe we would work faster if you weren't hovering over us like a stalker for the past hour." Gabriella snapped, clenching her jaw in annoyance.

"Finn, just..." Raven sighed, her anger towards her boyfriend being out of more than one reason "just go check if Clarke's okay." She turned to Gabriella. "If anyone can do this it's us right?" Raven encouraged, nudging her elbow with her own, the gesture making the engineer calm down slightly.

"Yeah, it's just...as much as I hate Wells, we can't let him die because if he does, Clarke going to go bat-shit crazy which means I will probably lose my shit too, and that only leaves Bellamy to lead us." The blonde ranted, scratching the side of her face with a heavy sigh. "And we all know that would be a total disaster."

"Then we won't let him die."

Gabriella did not have the chance to answer because Clarke's annoyed voice echoed through the bottom floor of the dropship, hinting that Finn was not doing a very good job of checking up on her. "You're not helping, Finn! You're doing the opposite!"

Clarke stormed past him and went straight back to Wells' body which was laid on a table next to Raven and Gabriella. His chest was completely bare and only covered in some dirt and blood. His shirt has been cut open and used to wrap around the knife that was stabbed into the side of his stomach to keep it in place and to keep him from bleeding any further. Clarke removed the torn short from around the knife and gulped nervously.

The female engineer stared at the two for a second longer before speaking again, "Ark Station, come in. We're on the ground. The hundred are alive and we need you. Calling Ark Station. Is anyone there? Please come in. The hundred are alive. Can anyone hear me?"

Gabriella put her head in her hands when a voice finally spoke through the radio "𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘭. 𝘞𝘩𝘰 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴? 𝘗𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘺 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧."

A chuckle of disbelief left both Raven and Gabriella as the former brought the radio to her mouth. "This is Raven Reyes. I'm from Mecha Station. We're transmitting from the ground. The hundred are alive."

Raven passed the radio over to the girl next to her so she could take over "You need to get Dr. Abby Griffin. Wells Jaha has been severely injured and he needs medical help. This is Gabriella Kane, we need Abby Griffin. Now."

"𝘏𝘢𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯, 𝘎𝘢𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘢. 𝘞𝘦'𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘢𝘭."

Clarke came up behind the two girls and squeezed their shoulders, cracking a smile despite her anxiousness. "You did it."

"𝘙𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘯? 𝘈𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦?"

The smile fell from Clarke's face in an instant at the sound of her mother's voice and she slowly took a step closer, "Mom? Mom it's me."

"𝘊𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦?" Abby asked hesitantly, her voice thick with emotion but none of them had time for emotional reunions or fighting right now.

"Mom, I need your help." Clarke said, "Wells has been stabbed by a grounder."

"𝘊𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦?" Came the voice that belonged to Chancellor Jaha. "𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘳. 𝘈𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘢𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘷𝘰𝘳𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥?"

"Yes. The Earth is survivable. We're not alone." The youngest Griffin announced without hesitation. When no response came, she spoke again, this time allowing her sadness to show in her voice as she pleaded, "Mom, he's dying. The knife is still in his chest."

"𝘊𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦? 𝘐𝘴 𝘮𝘺 𝘥𝘢𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘺𝘰𝘶?"

Gabriella felt her body stiffen at the sound of Marcus Kane's voice. She really thought she would never even hear his voice again. She felt Raven squeeze her knee in comfort and swallowed her nerves down before responding to him herself, "I'm here, Kane."

It has been a while since she actually called him dad since he stopped acting like it a long time ago. By that point, it did not even feel unnatural to call him by their shared last name like everyone else did.

There was an uncomfortable silence filling the dropship until Abby spoke again, "𝘊𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦, 𝘐'𝘮 𝘨𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘢 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘪𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘱 𝘣𝘺 𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘱."

The entire dropship shook as another crash of thunder was heard outside. Gabriella was about to yell at someone to close the doors but realized some people probably were not inside yet.

"𝘊𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦, 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘪𝘷𝘦-- 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭. 𝘔𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘤--"

"Ella? Raven? What's wrong?" Clarke asked them. Gabriella noticed the terrified look in Clarke's eyes and allowed Raven to take over adjusting the frequency and got over to stand in front of her best friend. "It's not the radio. It's the storm. But you need to stay calm, you're overthinking things and starting to panic. Wells is gonna be fine."

"How can you know that?" Clarke asked with a tear rolling down her cheek.

Gabriella squeezed her shoulders, "Because you're our only option. And you're Clarke Griffin, you can do anything you want to as long as you focus and stop overthinking everything."

"Thanks, El." Clarke sighed softly, her shoulders relaxing.

"I got it!" Octavia announced barging into the dropship, making both blondes turn around.

Gabriella furrowed her eyebrows, "Got what?"

The Blake sister handed her a bottle and grinned sheepishly when she winced at the smell of the liquid inside. "Monty's moonshine. Pretty sure no germ can survive it."

Chuckling, Gabriella gave the bottle to Clarke and pulled Octavia in a short hug, "I'm glad you're okay."

"Me too." Octavia smiled, pulling away from the hug to give Clarke a nod of hello.

The moment was interrupted by the dropship shaking again and the three girls shared a worried look, Clarke being the one to speak up, "The storm's getting worse. Monroe, close the doors."

"We still have people out there." A red-headed girl told the present leaders.

"Monty and Jasper still aren't back yet. Neither are Finn and Bellamy." Octavia cleared up, knowing that bringing up the two boys would make Gabriella give in.

"I knew it was getting way too quiet in here." Gabriella muttered, scolding herself for not realizing they ran off doing god knows what.

"It's alright." Clarke brushed it off. "They'll find somewhere to ride it out."

"No, we can't just--"

The sound of Raven's voice made Gabriella stop talking and turn to her with a questioning look. The mechanic held a needle towards Clarke. "One suture needle."

"Right. But I still need something to close the wound."

"There's a wire on the second level. I used it for the tents." Octavia suggested, looking at Clarke.

The blonde nodded, "Let's see it."

"Stay away from the blue wires that run through the ceiling. I rigged it to the solar cells on the roof." Raven warned the raven-haired girl.

She was ignored so Gabriella called out, "That means they're hot, Tavi!" Once Octavia was out of sight, Gabriella turned towards Clarke and said, "Remember what I said? Stay focused--"

"-- and don't overthink it, I know." Clarke finished her sentence herself, trying to calm down.

"Hey, they're back!"

The teenager's yell made all eyes move to the door of the dropship. Gabriella's eyes widened in horror when her eyes fell on the grounder who Bellamy and the rest of the guys were pulling inside.

"Bellamy, what the fuck?" Gabriella exclaimed, her eyes flickering between him and the grounder.

A bloody, beaten-up grounder.

"What the hell are you doing?" Octavia spat, glaring up at her older brother.

"It's time to get some answers." Bellamy answered bluntly and motioned for some of the boys to carry the grounder upstairs.

To say that Octavia was not impressed with Bellamy's rash decision would be an understatement. "Oh, you mean revenge?"

"I mean intel." Bellamy said sternly, giving her a dismissive glare.

"Bellamy she's right." Gabriella chimed in and grabbed his forearm. His intense brown eyes met her pleading blue ones. He held her gaze as she tried to keep him from throwing away the last bit of humanity he had. "This isn't how we do things. Not down here."

"It is now."

-

"I can't tell how deep it goes." Clarke told her mother, who was helping her take the knife out of Wells step by step. Her hands were trembling by the pressure she was under but she sounded confident and almost unfazed.

"𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵. 𝘑𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘬𝘯𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘺𝘦𝘵."

Clarke nodded to herself and sterilized her hands with moonshine again before passing it over to Gabriella for her to do the same. After rubbing it all over her hands, Gabriella drank some straight from the bottle in the hope it would distract her from what was going on on the second level.

(Probably torture, lots and lots of torture.)

"𝘊𝘢𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘧𝘭𝘶𝘪𝘥?" Abby asked after a few seconds.

"Hey! Watch it!" One of the delinquents exclaimed, pushing someone back.

"Clear the room." Clarke instructed desperately, keeping her eyes locked on Wells.

"Everyone! Get on the third level, now!"

The delinquents followed Gabriella's orders and started climbing one by one.

Clarke put her palm on Wells' forehead. Her eyebrows furrowed, worry crossing her face as she informed her mother, "He feels a little warm."

"𝘖𝘬𝘢𝘺, 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵." Abby assured her daughter. "𝘍𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘶𝘮𝘢. 𝘊𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦, 𝘐 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘮𝘦 𝘪𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘧𝘭𝘶𝘪𝘥 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥."

Gabriella huffed slightly, feeling slightly useless about this entire situation now that the radio was working. She turned to Raven and whispered, "I'll be upstairs. Call me if you need anything." Reaching the door of the second level, she knocked on it impatiently. "It's Ella! Open the door."

The door opened and she came face to face with Nate Miller who stared at her skeptically. He thought about which leader to side with but obviously chose Bellamy who was a lot angrier at the moment - even though Gabriella could easily give him a run for the money - so he stood his ground.

"Let her through." Gabriella heard Bellamy order the boy in front of her and watched as he moved to let her climb up.

Gabriella clenched her jaw in annoyance at the sight of the grounder chained like a wild animal. Noticing the furious look on her face, Bellamy mentally flinched and faced the couple of delinquents who were still present with an authoritative look on his face. As always, he radiated confidence and demanded nothing but respect. That was the thing that scared the shit out of Gabriella but also something she respected. "Give us a minute."

Not daring to test the patience of either one of the leaders, they quickly did as they were told. Gabriella was surprised to see Finn following them down. She watched him avoid her gaze and raised her eyebrows. He was ashamed? Good.

Bellamy's facade dropped the second they were left alone with the unconscious grounder. "Listen, Gabi. I get that you're angry, but--"

Gabriella cut him off with a scoff of disbelief. "Angry? You haven't seen angry, Bellamy. What the hell is wrong with you? We are trying to stop a war, not start one!"

"This grounder kidnapped Octavia, my little sister, and your friend." He quickly defended himself, trying to guilt-trip her by bringing Octavia into the argument.

"Maybe you would have known what actually happened if you didn't kick her out of here!"

"How many more of our people need to die until you realize we're fighting a war? He and his people killed three of our people out there and almost killed Wells. So, I'm sorry if I'm not exactly listening to the advice of my sixteen-year-old sister and a girl who fell in love with a murdering psychopath." Bellamy hissed before he even had the chance to think about what he was saying.

Gabriella blinked in shock at the harsh words and Bellamy instantly felt guilty about bringing Murphy up. The boy was obviously still a sore subject for her and Bellamy was the one who basically signed his death sentence so he was just digging himself a bigger hole.

"Right." Gabriella growled lowly, "Have fun torturing a human being and becoming an even bigger monster, Mr. Fugitive."

-

Clarke handed Gabriella the knife once she managed to get it out of Wells' stomach, so she could stitch the still fresh wound up and it wouldn't get infected. Grabbing more of Monty's moonshine, Gabriella poured it onto a spare shirt, about to clean the knife but as she took the knife back into her hands, it slipped and made her accidentally cut the side of her wrist.

"Son of a bitch." The blonde hissed to herself and dropped the knife back on the table so she could stop the bleeding with the same shirt already in her hands.

"You okay?" Raven asked, looking up, hearing the silent hiss of pain that left the engineer next to her. Her brown eyes were wide and cautious. She was on Earth for less than forty-eight hours and she was still wary of everything.

"Fine. Just a cut." Gabriella brushed it off and placed the shirt back onto the table next to Wells.

"I'm done." Clarke announced, her words mainly directed towards her mom on the other side of the radio.

"𝘎𝘰𝘰𝘥. 𝘋𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥?"

Clarke shook her head. "We'll make do. Like always."

Gabriella, who was now holding a cold and wet shirt on Wells' forehead, touched the side of his head for a second, furrowing her eyebrows at the high temperature of his skin. "Is he supposed to be this warm?"

"𝘏𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘥, 𝘎𝘢𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘢." Abby told her. "𝘐'𝘮 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘩𝘦'𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘦."

Clarke put her bloodied hand on top of Wells' chest and her eyes widened. "Wait, Mom, she's right. He's feverish, and his breathing is uneven."

"𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳. 𝘓𝘦𝘵 𝘮𝘦 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘪𝘧 𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘴𝘦, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬-- 𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘴."

"Well down here, there's nothing but woods." Clarke said bitterly, rubbing the sweat off her forehead.

"Yeah, no shit." Gabriella muttered in agreement. She sat down on one of the dropship seats, feeling slightly lightheaded, and put her sweaty face in her hands.

Clarke dropped the towel she used to clean her blood-stained hands and got up, "I need a break."

"Clarke?" Abby called over the radio, "Clarke, wait. Girls...could you give us a few minutes?"

"Sure." Raven said immediately but Clarke shook her head.

"No. You two stay with Wells. I'll go see what the hell they're doing up there." She turned to Gabriella with a pleading expression. "You coming, El?"

The Kane shook her head, not looking up from the bottle of moonshine on the table - too busy trying to realize why her sight was getting blurry and her vision unfocused - when she responded. "Yeah, you do that. I'll stay with Raven and keep an eye on Charming."

"Right." Clarke hesitantly nodded, not knowing where her best friend's sudden tiredness came from. It must be the lack of sleep, she thought and turned around to go upstairs.

-

"Rae..." Gabriella choked out after the two girls spent at least ten minutes by Wells' side while Clarke was checking up on Bellamy and the grounder.

Raven's eyes glazed over in concern once they landed on Gabriella's weak and sweaty form. She quickly got to her feet and rushed by her side to scrunch down in front of the weak blonde. "Ella, oh my-- "

"Get Clarke." Gabriella pleaded, "Please, I need Clarke."

She felt her eyes start to close and desperately tried to keep them open but the amount of heat her body radiated made it impossible for her to breathe correctly either. Just for a second. Raven watched the blonde close her eyes with a mix of panic and shock but the emotions did not keep her frozen. She jumped towards her and yelled, "Clarke! Clarke! Something's wrong with Ella!"

Gabriella did not even register the voices trying to get her to stay awake when everything went black.

-

The first time Gabriella woke up it was to the sound of Raven yelling. She might have heard the voices of Monty and Jasper in the background too but she was not sure.

"Clarke, she's getting worse! Please!"

The second time it was definitely Jasper yelling.

"He stopped breathing!"

The third time it was Raven again.

"Faster! She's seizing! What's taking so long?"

-

The fourth - and the last time - she woke up, it was with her head in someone's lap while a gentle hand stroked her hair. She fluttered her eyes open to see Octavia Blake staring at her with a concerned expression.

"Hey." The youngest Blake grinned when she saw the blonde's eyes open, "How are you feeling?"

"Like I died and then came back to life." Gabriella admitted with a small sheepish smile, "What the hell even happened?"

"According to Raven..." Octavia started, helping Gabriella sit up. "You cut your wrist with the same knife that Wells was stabbed with and the knife was poisoned."

"What kind of poison?" Gabriella asked, "It was obviously not that strong since I'm obviously alive."

"I don't know but you would have died if the grounder didn't give us the antidote."Tthe raven-haired girl admitted, flinching as the memories of her brother torturing the grounder to find in which bottle the antidote was.

"Really? He did that willingly?" Gabriella raised an eyebrow.

"No." Octavia shook her head. "But Bellamy started torturing him when he didn't give him an answer."

"Seriously?" The blonde exclaimed, her blue eyes widening in disbelief, "What? Are we animals now?"

"No, we're survivors." The familiar male voice made both girls roll their eyes and they turned to the dropship door to see Bellamy standing there with an unreadable expression on his face.

"What do you want?" Gabriella spat out while she glared at him.

Her question was ignored as the freckled male turned to his sister and said, "Leave us alone for a moment, O."

"No." Both Octavia and Gabriella said at the same time, making Bellamy sigh in annoyance.

He looked between them, before setting his eyes on his sister, "Now, Octavia."

The Blake sister glared at her brother as she got up before exiting the ship, her way of walking representing an annoyed toddler.

"What do you want?" Gabriella asked, getting to her feet and crossing her arms over her chest.

"Listen, Bambi. I'm not gonna apologize for saving your life."

"Good." Gabriella smiled sarcastically. "Not like I'd accept the apology anyway. Besides, that isn't the only stupid thing you did in the last forty-eight hours."

Bellamy looked around the dropship as if he was searching for what to say before he licked his lips and locked his brown eyes back with her blue ones. "Who we are and who we need to be to survive are very different things."

"I'll keep that in mind for the next time you mess up."

a/n: listen to"foolish one" while reading this chapter (more specifically, the scenes of bell and gabi arguing) for an angsty experience

edited