𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒉𝒆𝒅𝒂: 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒐𝒏𝒆; ❛ 𝑺𝑻𝑨𝒀 𝑯𝑰𝑮𝑯 ❜
↷ 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒓𝒆𝒅
❝ 𝒃𝒆𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒚𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒂𝒕 𝒎𝒆, 𝒍𝒆𝒕 𝒎𝒆 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒔𝒂𝒚 𝒊𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒂𝒎𝒚'𝒔 𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒂 ❞

People had different ways of dealing with things like grief or heartbreak.

Some ── more specifically Jasper Jordan ── drown themselves in alcohol and ignore everyone that tries to help them. People like Wells go out into the woods thinking they aren't being obvious about it. And some throw themselves into work to try and not think about what happened. That's what Gabriella has been doing ever since Clarke and Murphy left.

Running away from her personal problems is something she proved was her speciality on multiple occasions.

Gabriella did multiple things to keep her emotions from taking over. She finished her engineering program in a week and then went over to coding. She even found herself putting her ability to use a gun to good use and exchanging her blue denim jacket for a guards uniform.

"If you keep sneaking away like that, I might start getting suspicious that you don't like me very much."

The familiar tired voice called from behind her, making Gabriella snap out of her thoughts and halt in tying up her shoes. She turned her head around to narrow her eyes at the curly headed boy laying on his bed over her shoulder.

"I don't." she stated sharply, making Bellamy's smirk grow.

"Well I guess the end of the world is coming."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Gabriella asked, picking up her guard jacket from the floor and putting it on before getting to her feet.

"During our second day on Earth you told me you'll sleep with me when the world ends." Bellamy stated, leaning back on his elbows, making the blanket roll down and expose his bare chest.

"I 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘵 say that." Gabriella said, scoffing while using her fingers to comb through her messy hair.

So, yeah, she and Bellamy have been spending more time together since Mount Weather.

But of course that besides the occasional hook up it was still completely platonic.

Sure, she didn't hate him anymore and they were more like frenemies with benefits than anything else.

They don't talk about it. They don't talk about how they basically share his room now. They don't talk about how she started sleeping over, wrapped up in his arms after they were done fooling around. They don't talk about how most of their friends probably know what they're doing.

And they definitely don't talk about how quickly the stress relief hook-ups after their guard shifts or her working in her workshop with Wick and Raven turned into late night talks about 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴.

"Sure you didn't." Bellamy chuckled, his smugness making her roll her eyes.

"I'm leaving and you should get dressed and head to training so we can head out to Sector Seven earlier." Gabriella told him, her tone now serious, "The Azgeda area is rough so we should be in and out as fast as we can."

Bellamy nodded at her words, getting out of bed, "Yeah, you're right."

Gabriella's eyes widened when she took in the sight of Bellamy's nude body standing tall in front of her.

"I thought you were leaving." he said, raising a knowing eyebrow at her frozen and a tiny bit flustered state.

"I was── I mean I am." Gabriella stuttered out, shaking her head to clear her thoughts, "I'm leaving and you should . . . get dressed. Yeah, you should definitely do that."

"See you later then." the curly headed Blake said, not bothering to hide the way his lips curled into a small smirk, the action only making Gabriella more frustrated.

"Bye."

"Bye."

-

FIFTEEN DAYS AFTER MOUNT WEATHER

Another way Gabriella chose to cope with her life changing again was sneaking out to the old delinquent camp in the middle of the night, getting on top of the dropship and watching the sunset while getting drunk.

It was going smoothly until Wells caught her in the middle of the woods and fucking told on her to Kane.

And Kane called Bellamy. Who was apparently her new babysitter from now on. A babysitter she was having a screaming match with in the weapon room.

"No Bellamy you don't get it— "

"No, I do. I do and you know that." Bellamy yelled, cutting her off, "You don't want to let me in because you're afraid I'm gonna leave or end up dead. Because that's what Murphy and Clarke did but I'm not them, okay? You have to tell me where you're going because I'm the one that's afraid of waking up one morning and realizing you disappeared because you never came back from the dropship!"

His words made Gabriella close her eyes and rub her fingers on the sides of her head, feeling guilty now.

"You want to go back to normal? Let someone— anyone— see who you actually are, let them see you feel emotions. Stop acting like a brick wall I can't get through because it's incredibly frustrating."

"Well that's not my fault now is it?" Gabriella shot back, refusing to back down, "We said we were going to be there for each other, not babysit each other and tell them how they should choose to live their life."

"Can you stop being a smartass for one second and actually listen to me?" Bellamy exclaimed, clenching his jaw in annoyance, "I care about you Gabi and I'm not gonna let you keep doing this to yourself! There are other ways to grieve and cope with loss."

Gabriella scoffed and clenched her first together, almost drawing blood, "Yeah, like what?"

The two of them stare at each other for a few seconds, both breathing heavily before leaning in to connect their lips together.
They weren't sure who made the first move but neither of them cared. The kiss wasn't soft in any way. It was fast and rushed and rough and messy. It was exactly how Bellamy imagined kissing Gabriella would be like.

For Gabriella, this was something that could take the numbness away and made her feel something that isn't sadness and anger. She thought it meant the same with Bellamy. But even though he wasn't aware of it, to him, it meant more than he could put into words.

Gabriella pulled away but kept their foreheads glued together and tried to catch her breath, "After we do this and we get the frustration out of our system, we aren't gonna let it affect our ... relationship. We can't let it happen again."

"No, that would be stupid." Bellamy agreed, his eyes completely set on Gabriella's now red lips.

"Yeah, incredibly stupid." Gabriella swallowed. "So, we're gonna pretend that never happened, just like how everyone pretends to forget the tact that you and Miller were drunkenly dryhumping at the party when you got drunk last week."

"Noted."

"For now just ... please make me feel something." Gabriella pleaded, her eyes falling shut again and her hands subconsciously playing with the curly hair on the back of Bellamy's neck.

Bellamy knew Gabriella didn't feel the same way like he did and that this was just the first step of grief for her that wasn't denial. She was focusing all her emotions on one thing.

But he didn't care, he was determined to enjoy every second of this for as long as she was willing to keep going.

Bellamy didn't realize it at the time, but if Gabriella Hastings asked him, he'd burn the entire world to the ground if it meant making her happy.

And yeah, he was so fucked.

Very, very fucked.

-

While calling Arkadia home was something Gabriella found hard to get used to, the hallways of it were something she was very much familiar with.

Sometimes it all seemed like a dream. When Gabriella was back in the sky box, she could never imagine getting the chance at freedom again. And when she thought Earth and the hundred were her chance at freedom, she didn't expect to be proven wrong when The Ark landed.

She also still wasn't used to being able to coexist with the grounders.

Well if you could even call it that.

After Lexa betrayed them at Mount Weather, they didn't communicate in any way but one of them ended up finding a home in Arkadia. That someone was Lincoln.

He and Octavia were in a romantic relationship ── something Bellamy 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 isn't used to and often whines about whenever he can ── which gave him a free pass to hide from the other twelve clans with 𝘚𝘬𝘢𝘪𝘬𝘳𝘶.

Lincoln quickly found a way to make himself useful and started training people in safe defense in the guards training room every morning── the same place Gabriella was heading to right now to pick Bellamy and Wells up. The three of them had to head to the garage and start packing up the rover── the same car Gabriella has been practically obsessed with ever since she and Raven fixed it and learned how to drive it.

"He had me, but he was too aggressive." she heard Lincoln say when she appeared in the doorway of the room. Her eyes soon landed on a sweaty and very much shirtless Bellamy getting off his place on the floor and towards his shirt, which he quickly put over his head, while grumbling under his breath.

"Whatever you say."

"Quitting so soon?" Lincoln asked him with a raised eyebrow.

"Mapping run, Sector Seven." Bellamy explained, his eyes soon connecting with Gabriella's over Lincoln's shoulder, "Hey, Artemis. You ready to go?"

"I've been ready for the past hour." the blonde deadpanned, giving a chuckling Wells a side glance, "You and Princey are the ones that are always late."

"Well you know what they say; better late than never." Wells told her, walking over to her side and leaning his elbow on her shoulder, only to have her slap it off of her.

"I think you're the only one that says that." she scoffed, before walking towards Lincoln to hand him a black bag with an Arcadia guards jacket inside of it.

"Council wants you to have that." Bellamy said from behind her.

Lincoln inspected the jacket carefully before speaking, "I'm Trikru."

"That uniform doesn't change that. This is our home now, Lincoln. We fought for it." Bellamy shrugged and Gabriella was quick to nod in agreement.

"Exactly. You can be both. Just look at Tavia." she added, "Too many of our friends have died for us to still try and strike up a rivalry between us and the grounders. We can't go down that road again."

Bellamy nodded, "On The Ark, the uniform meant something different. Down here it means what we make it mean. Together." turning away from the group, he leaned closer to Lincoln to whisper, "My sister will understand that eventually."

He didn't wait for a response, only putting his hand on Gabriella's back and directing her to the door. He and Wells bent down to pick up their jackets, when Lincoln stopped all three of them.

"Sector Seven puts you right at the Ice Nation borderline." he explained.

Huffing and looking at the clock on the wall, Gabriella blinked, unimpressed, "We know."

"Just because Azgeda was part of the Commander's coalition, doesn't mean they respect the cease-fire." Lincoln told them, "I should be on that scout."

"I wish. We all do." Bellamy said, "But until the Commander agrees to lift the kill order on you, you're more trouble than you're worth."

"We should go now." Gabriella chimed in the second he was done, "We still have to do a small check in with Kane and Abby and we're already late."

-

SIXTEEN DAYS AFTER MOUNT WEATHER

"Rae, Wick, I did something stupid." Gabriella announced once she stepped inside the workshop where Raven and Wick were already busy working.

She briefly thanked whatever god there was up there that Sinclair wasn't in her to lecture her too or to hear her complain.

"What? Bellamy?" Raven prompted, her eyes still glued on the radio she was working on, chuckling at her own joke under her breath.

When the mechanic was only met by silence, her now wide eyes snapped up to Gabriella's, who was looking at her nails and refusing to meet her shocked stare.

"You did not." Wick chuckled over the silence and a second later, when Raven finally managed to find her words, she exclaimed, "You did what?"

"He was lecturing me about sneaking out and one second we were yelling at each other and the next we were making out and having sex." Gabriella ranted, resting her elbows on the hood of the rover and putting her face in the palms of her hands.

"Well it was bound to happen sooner or later."

Raven shrugged, her words not making Gabriella feel even a little better.

Rolling his eyes, Wick turned to Gabriella with a raised eyebrow, "Did you at least talk to him about it?"

"No." the blonde admitted, lifting her head up,

"I kinda ran away before he woke up."

"Idiot." Raven scoffed, rolling her eyes and giving Gabriella a deadpan look, "I'm not surprised though."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that you had huge commitment issues before and then you finally allowed Murphy in, who left which only brings the commitment issues back but they're even bigger." the mechanic explained, making Gabriella blink in surprise. Noticing her silence, Raven turned away from her work completely and gave her a soft look, "Wanna talk about it?"

"Talk about what?" Gabriella scoffed, "The fact that my boyfriend, if I could even call him that, left on some spirit quest with our ex-chancellor that killed his father? If I'm lucky he's probably somewhere dead in a ditch."

Wick's eyebrows shot up in surprise, "Woah El── "

"He didn't say goodbye, okay?" Gabriella snapped, running her hand through her messy hair, "I came back from Mount Weather after saving out friends, both emotionally and physically exhausted and expecting the guy I love to be there. Only to come into camp and have Kane tell me he left. There was no note, no goodbye letter. He just left. And I had to find that out from a guy I pretty much hate. So excuse me for going into an overdrive of reckless decisions to stop thinking about it."

Raven gave her a sad and sympathetic smile, before wrapping her arms around her shoulders and pulling her into a hug, "That fucker really messed you up, huh?"

"Yeah." Gabriella muttered, wrapping her arms around Raven's waist and hugging back, resting her chin in the crook of her neck. A second later, Wick wrapped his arms around both of them and hugged them too, making both girls chuckle.

-

Gabriella walked into the Chancellor's office with Bellamy and Wells by her side. She opened her mouth to speak up, only for Kane to put a finger to his mouth as a signal to be quiet.

When their eyebrows furrowed, he pointed at Abby sleeping on the couch, "This is the first sleep the chancellor has had in two days."

"We'll be quick then." Wells nodded politely and all three of them moved from the doorway and further into the room.

Gabriella's eyes flickered along the map she and Wells drew a couple of weeks ago and allowed Bellamy and Wells to take over the conversation.

It's not that she completely hated Kane. On the contrary, she finally realized why he was never a proper father figure to her. They did fix what was left of their relationship but whenever they were left alone in a room together, it would only lead to awkward conversations.

"We're going into Sector Seven." Bellamy told him, "I think we should arm the entire unit."

Kane narrowed his eyes and looked at Gabriella, who simply raised an eyebrow that made him nod, "Permission granted. But the rules of engagement still apply. 𝘕𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘭 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘦."

"Sir, yes sir." Gabriella quipped, pushing Wells' shoulder towards the exit and grabbing Bellamy by the elbow so they could leave, only to have Kane stop them.

"There hasn't been an attack since Mount Weather. It's three months." he told them seriously, "Our people believe that this is real peace. Try not to screw that up."

His last words were clearly directed at Gabriella and Bellamy, something Wells snorted at, while Gabriella rolled her eyes with a small smile and Bellamy shook his head with a grin.

"I solemnly promise I'm not going to screw anything up."

-

Annoyance flashed through Gabriella the second she and Bellamy came across Monty sitting on a chair with his hands on the table, looking like he was having a midlife crisis.

"Why aren't you ready yet?" she asked, walking up to him.

Monty sighed, closing his eyes for a second before opening them again, "I am. He's not."

When Gabriella followed his gaze and saw Jasper laying across the floor, passed out from drinking again, her entire expression instantly softened.

Mount Weather didn't hit anyone as hard as it hit Jasper.

First, he refused to talk to anyone until one day, he showed up at the bar, surprisingly being the one to come up to Gabriella and start a conversation.

-

ELEVEN DAYS AFTER MOUNT WEATHER

"I heard about Murphy." Jasper announced, sitting down in the empty chair beside Gabriella and making her look up from her glass of moonshine to raise an eyebrow at him.

Sensing she wasn't going to crack, Jasper rolled his eyes and put an empty glass of alcohol Gabriella only now noticed he was holding, and placed it behind the empty bar.

"You're drunk." she voiced, her eyebrows furrowed and her voice clearly confused.

"So are you." he shot back.

"Touche." Gabriella sighed before taking another sip of her moonshine.

"I'm not mad at you, you know?" Jasper said after a few minutes of silence, "I mean, you were trying to do what you thought was right even though it wasn't." a chuckle escaped him, "I can't believe I thought you changed. You're still the same selfish girl you were on The Ark."

Gabriella eyes widened, "Jas, I —"

"I was gonna kill Cage, Ella." he snapped, his fists clenching, "But you just couldn't let me have that."

"If you killed him then, a hundred guards would have jumped to kill." Gabriella exclaimed, "They never would have stopped either way."

"Dying would be better than this." Jasper said, his eyes teary and his voice cracking at the end of his sentence. Before Gabriella could even blink, he was grabbing another glass of alcohol from the bar and practically running out of the room.

"What was that about?" came Bellamy's voice from behind her.

Gabriella shrugged and shook her head to clear her head, "Nothing."

Bellamy sat down on the same spot Jasper was sitting in just a minute before and looked at her curiously as she took a big sip from her glass and frowned once she realized it was empty.

"Some say that new moonshine is better than sex but I think you should slow down." he started, making her crack a smile and shake her head.

"Only people that haven't had sex with me say that."

They spent a few moments in silence before Gabriella spoke up, "Do you think I'm selfish?"

Bellamy snorted, thinking she was joking,
"Yeah, sure." "Hold on, did someone say that to you?" he asked when she didn't say anything else.

"No, it's just—" Gabriella swallowed, looking down at her hands, "Something Jasper said makes me believe we could have done more if we wanted to."

"Well we couldn't." Bellamy said firmly, "And about you being selfish? Let me just say that you're one of the least selfish people I know. At first, when I looked at you I only saw a girl that cares about saving her own ass but you proved me wrong so many times."

"Says the guy who risked his entire life to protect his sister and ninety nine other teenagers." Gabriella scoffed, feeling a rush of heat crawling up her neck at the soft way he was looking at her.

"We all have our roles to play." Bellamy stated, ignoring her comment, "You're the leader who does whatever she can to protect the people she cares about. That's everything but selfish."

-

"What should we do?" Monty's question made Gabriella snap out of her thoughts and look away from Jasper and towards Monty.

"We should leave him this time." Bellamy said, making Gabriella scoff and shake her head.

"No way." she pushed, "He needs this."

"He's not getting better." Monty added with a sad look on his face, "Maya's death broke him."

The last sentence was enough to have both Gabriella and Bellamy share a guilty look. Raising an eyebrow, the blonde gave Bellamy a pointed look.

"Take an arm." Bellamy sighed, he and Monty moving to pick Jasper up from the floor, each lifting one of his hands in the air and wrapping it around their necks and towards the garage.

"Zeke, I said produce first. Art doesn't go bad." Gina Martin's voice rang through the room, making Gabriella tear her attention from Bellamy and Monty placing Jasper down on the floor and towards the crew carrying out things from Mount Weather.

"Make sure he doesn't hurt himself." Gabriella stated, directing her words to Bellamy and Monty, before turning around and swiftly skipping over to Gina.

"Easy run?" she asked the curly headed brunette with a small smile.

"I hate that place." Gina shivered, crossing her arms over her chest and cringing at the mere thought.

"I know." Gabriella sighed, "We all do. But soon enough we'll have everything we need out of there and you won't need to go there anymore."

"It's not all bad though." Gina said with a subtle flirty grin, "I got you something."

She turned around to grab something from one of the boxes and handed it to Gabriella as soon as she turned back to face her. Gabriella's expression brightened at the sight of the same Iliad she and Bellamy saw at Maya's house back in Mount Weather.

"I saw you carrying it around while we were on The Ark and you mentioned you lost it so I thought you'd like it." Gina explained with a faint blush on her cheeks that made Gabriella's smile grow.

"I love it." she told her, "Thanks. Can you just hold on to it for me while I'm out. I don't have time to bring it back to my room and I don't wanna lose it."

"Of course."

"Hey!" Raven's yell from underneath the rover made them turn away from each other and towards the mechanic. She was too busy glaring at Bellamy to notice them turning around, "Take it easy."

"Good morning to you too." Bellamy scoffed while taking out the weapons from the bag Gabriella handed him earlier.

"Hey, Bird." she greeted Raven, offering her a hand so she could get up from the floor easily.

Raven accepted the hand with an annoyed huff, "Hey, Bird Shit."

"Grab one of the guns." Gabriella told Miller once he walked into the garage.

"What's the point if we can't shoot them?" he scowled but took a rifle from Bellamy's hand anyway.

"We can, just not to kill." Bellamy said without missing a beat, "That goes for everyone. Where's Octavia?"

"We're going outside the wall. You honestly think she would miss that?" Miller grinned, side eyeing Bellamy with a knowing look.

Gabriella turned away from them, chuckling under her breath, her eyebrows shooting up in surprise when she caught sight of Monty pouring a bucket of water on Jasper. The buzz cut boy instantly snapped out of the half conscious state he was in and stared at his former best friend in shock.

"I'm sorry." Monty drawled out with a bored look on his face, "Was that too cold?"

Jasper grabbed Monty by the neck of his jacket, the violent action making Gabriella jump straight towards them and push Jasper away from Monty with Bellamy hot on her heels.

"You really are out of your mind if you think I'm letting you use a gun while you're hungover." Gabriella told him once he calmed down and backed away.

"Don't want one." Jasper shrugged, mocking Gabriella's old two finger salute and then smacking Bellamy straight across the face.

Gabriella scoffed to herself as she watched him walk away, muttering under her breath so only Bellamy, Monty and Raven would be able to hear, "I know he's grieving but I swear that one day I'm gonna strangle him."

"Is there a cactus where your heart should be?" Monty raised an eyebrow, his tone clearly teasing.

"What crawled up your ass today?" Gabriella shot back, her attention soon moving to Philip walking in, "Oh."

Monty followed her gaze and he instantly went red in the face, "Shut up."

"I didn't say anything." the blonde chuckled with a small smirk.

Bellamy snorted at the exchange and gave Philip a nod, "Nice to see you finally joined us. Grab a gun and get in."

Miller frowned when Raven took a seat in the driver's seat and gave Gabriella a half hearted glare, "How can she drive this thing and I can't?"

"Because I trust her not to crash it." Gabriella deadpanned, brushing past him to get inside, only to have Gina block her way.

"Be safe." she told her with a worried look on her face that made Gabriella's face soften, "Always am."

She turned away from Gina and scowled at the sight of Jasper sitting shotgun but brushed it off and came in the back.

"She's way too good for you." Raven commented, with a small smirk.

"That's why we aren't dating."

Raven narrowed her eyes with a knowing glint in them, "Sure, that's why."

"Does anyone ever think you two are a thing?" Philip chimed in, looking between the two girls with furrowed eyebrows.

Before either of them could open their mouths, Bellamy, Miller and Monty simultaneously answered, "Yes."

"Be careful." Jasper scoffed under his breath, "Monty might melt her."

The atmosphere instantly tensed at his words and Monty was about to get up from his seat and say something, until Gabriella tugged on his wrist and gave him a pointed look.

The rover became even more tense when Wells jogged up to them with an apologetic look on his face.

"Sorry I'm late." he apologized, his eyes quickly looking over at Raven, who was now as stoick as ever, before he sighed and took a seat right by the doors next to Gabriella.

"Raven, take us out."

The mechanic nodded and started the car, allowing the garage doors to open, revealing Octavia on her brown horse waiting for them on the other end.

"Guess we found her." Miller whistled, making Bellamy buff out a laugh.

"Try and keep up!" the youngest Blake yelled, making Raven narrow her she's and instantly start the engine and drive after her.

-

TWENTY DAYS AFTER MOUNT WEATHER

"You did it again, didn't you?" the sound of Raven's voice made Gabriella lift her head up from the workshop table and look at the mechanic who was giving her a knowing look.

"When you think about it, it's kind of your fault." Gabriella started with pursed lips, ignoring the sight of Raven rolling her eyes, ''I mean, you were the one who broke Princey's heart so he started going into the woods in the middle of the night too to look for his other ex girlfriend. If he wasn't doing that, he wouldn't have found me and Bellamy and I wouldn't be having sex."

"Maybe you shouldn't have been sneaking out in the first place." Raven shot back, glaring at the blonde but still sitting down next to her.

Gabriella bit her bottom lip in thought before smirking slightly, "You know, you and Clarke have the same taste. First it's Finn, then Jaha Junior and then me. The best decision you have ever made."

"Woah, you slept with Clarke?" Raven exclaimed in surprise, her eyebrows raising.

"No." Gabriella scoffed, her nose scrunching up, "Ew. She just had a thing for me before we stopped being friends. Nothing ever happened."

"You really think the only reason Wells is going out there is for Clarke?" the mechanic asked hesitantly after a few silent moments.

"Yeah." the blonde admitted with a sigh and gave Raven's hand a squeeze, "I don't think that necessarily means he has feelings for her. I may not be the biggest fan of him but Princey is as selfless as they get. Probably why the two of you got along so much. He only came down here for Clarke in the first place so of course he feels some sort of responsibility for her." she looked down at their hands, "He's probably mad at her for leaving too, like I am."

"Yeah." Raven nodded in agreement, swallowing and looking down at the floor. Her eyes involuntarily drifted towards her cast and Gabriella's grip on her hand only tightened.

"You're gonna get through this." she stated, already knowing what her friend was thinking.

Raven's lips twitched into a small sad smile,
"Okay."

"Just don't push me away." Gabriella added,
"You can survive without Charming but without me? Never."

"Okay." Raven repeated, her words followed by a chuckle.

-

"But the day after today ── "

Jasper's humming in the passenger was cut off by Monty ripping out the earphones from his ears.

"No way. If you're gonna ride shotgun, you can't just disappear." he told them buzz cut boy, who responded by taking out the earphones and connecting the Mp3 player to the rover radio.

Monty scowled, about to take it out, only to have Gabriella nudge him with her elbow, "Let it go. It's a long ride anyway."

With a reluctant sigh, Monty nodded and leaned back in his seat beside her.

The song soon changed from a rather depressing one to a more upbeat one, making Miller immediately start imitating air drums and singing along.

"Why can't I 𝘨𝘦𝘵 just 𝘰𝘯𝘦 kiss? Why can't I get just one kiss? May be some things I wouldn't miss..."

Soon enough, Jasper and Philip joined in too. Miller nudged Monty to join in, making Gabriella chuckled under her breath with full knowledge of how much Monty hated anything that had to do with singing or dancing. Main reason why they skipped the Unity Day party every year.

"But I look at your pants, and I need a kiss." Jasper sang, side eyeing Raven with a suggestive look, "Why can't I get just one screw? Why can't I get just one screw?"

Watching Miller and Philip dramatically sing to each other while Wells and Monty side eyed them, trying to suppress their smiles, made a huge grin appear on Gabriella's lips.

"Believe me, I know what to do but something won't let me make love to you." Gabriella couldn't help but join in, nudging Wells to do the same and singing straight at him in hopes of making him as uncomfortable as possible.

While everyone in the rover was singing ── minus Wells and Monty uncomfortably squirming ── Bellamy was trying to hide his grin at how happy everyone looked.

More specifically Gabriella, who hasn't smiled properly for more than a few seconds in these last three months.

Almost as if she was reading his mind, the blonde turned to grin at him, the light he hadn't seen in her eyes for months, going straight to his heart and messing with his head.

"Don't shoot, shoot, shoot that thing at me. Don't shoot, shoot, shoot that thing at me."

With a huff and a dramatic glare thrown Monty's way ── the boy having joined in the singing too ── Wells sang along too, making Gabriella smile in satisfaction.

"You know you got my sympathy. But don't shoot, shoot, shoot that thing at me." With that line Jasper shot out of his seat and opened the hatch at the top of the rover and popped his head out of it.

"Whoo!" they all heard him yell happily and Gabriella finally thought that there still might be some hope for him to make it out of all of this okay.

The happy moment was cut off by beeping coming from the device behind the radio. Gabriella frowned and got out of her seat to get closer and check what it was.

"Tracking Beacon from The Ark." Monty voiced, looking at the device over Gabriella's shoulder.

Raven stopped the rover immediately and Gabriella was quick to jump into the passenger seat and stop the music.

"Hey, that was the best part." Jasper whined, coming back down.

"Who is it?" Bellamy asked, giving Gabriella a curious look and making her reach for the keyboard connected to the device. She pressed a few buttons before the red text saying location confirmed: FARM STATION showed up on the screen.

"Farm Station?" Monty asked with furrowed eyebrows.

Philip visibly paled, "After four months?"

"How?"

Bellamy gave Miller and Philip a shrug before turning back to Gabriella, "We'll find out. Where are they?"

Gabriella swallowed and turned back to the device, faintly hearing Octavia open the door to the rover to deadpan.

"Don't tell me I missed the party."

The blonde engineer felt her eyes widening as the map on the screen showed Sector Eight.

While Sector Seven put them on the border to Azgeda, Sector Eight was specifically Azgeda territory.

"Sector Eight." she said, realizing the only person looking at what she was doing was Raven and turning to face the others.

"That's Ice Nation." Wells told her, his entire body going rigid.

Philip scoffed and scratched the back of his neck, "Yeah, no kidding."

"What about it?" Octavia chimed in with narrowed eyes.

"Protocol says we can go home, let the Chancellor decide what to do next." Raven shrugged, only looking at Gabriella to avoid looking at Wells.

"I hate to say she has a point." the youngest Jaha sighed, "But she has a point. We can't just go marching into Azgeda territory. It's risky."

"I say screw protocol. The Chancellor's not from Farm Station. Monty and Philip and their parents are and so is Miller's boyfriend." Bellamy said blankly and turned to raise an eyebrow at Gabriella, "We might not be at the dropship but it's still your call."

The blonde whipped away the bit of sweat falling down the side of her face and sighed, "We promised Kane ── "

"No, you promised him." Bellamy shot back without missing a beat.

The two of them had a short stare off, making everyone in the rover get a major sense of deja vu from the time they first landed on Earth. Just this time, Gabriella gave in a lot easier.

"Fine." she huffed, making Bellamy smirk in victory and turn back to his little sister.

"Try to keep up."

-

The rover came to a stop exactly on the border that connected Sector Seven and Eight and it was the place the GPS said the Farm Station Beacon was supposed to be.

All of them besides Raven got out of the car and Bellamy was the first to speak up, "These woods must be the border."

"That's what I said." Gabriella deadpanned, looking away from the rifle in her hand to give him an annoyed side look, "Like exactly a minute ago."

"So where's all the ice?" Jasper asked from behind them, sounding as bored as ever.

Gabriella's walking slowed down and she connected her gaze with Wells', "He kinda has a point."

"It's much further. North." Octavia told him, "Azgeda stretches for a thousand miles."

Monty looked down at the device in his hand, "Good thing we only have to go two hundred meters."

He was about to brush past Philip and into the forest with his eyes still glued to the device, when his boyfriend put a hand on his forearm, "Slow down."

"Remember, rules of engagement are; nonlethal force." Wells told everyone with a serious look on his face, his eyes briefly flickering to where Raven was getting out of the rover.

"Tight formation on my command." Gabriella ordered but her eyes widened when she followed Wells' gaze, "Raven you're supposed to stay inside."

As much as she hated to treat her best friend like she was gonna break, she knew they were possibly gonna have to run if too many Azgeda warriors found them.

"Yeah, right." Raven scoffed and Gabriella was about to say something else when Octavia cut her off.

"We need every gun we've got."

"They're coming." Monty exclaimed, "One hundred and twenty meters . . . one ten."

He was about to walk forward but Bellamy used the hand he wasn't holding his rifle with to hold him back.

"They're our people. What are you doing?" Monty hissed when Gabriella's eyes flicker to the sight of a red light shining from one of the bags one of the grounders was carrying.

Gabriella didn't even have a moment to develop a plan inside her head, when Jasper marched straight towards the grounder with the beacon.

"Jas, get back here."

"Jasper what are you doing?"

Gabriella and Monty hissed at the same time, but the buzz cut boy ignored them 𝘢𝘯𝘥 the weapons the Azgeda scouts pointed straight at him and kept going.

Octavia glared at the back of his head, "Jasper ── "

"It's okay. I got this." Jasper brushed her off and kept walking towards the grounders.

He does not look like he has this. Gabriella thought, ignoring how her knee frantically shook. She was too afraid to move a muscle because of the weapons the grounders had aimed at them. She was scared they were gonna end up shooting her if she moved, or worse, shoot Jasper.

"Tell them we observe the Commander's Truce. Do it now." Bellamy whispered hurriedly towards his sister.

After Octavia did as she was told, they ignored her because they were too busy glaring at Jasper who snatched the beacon from the bag, "This belongs to us."

He was about to walk back, when one of them grabbed him by the neck of his shirt and put a knife straight to his neck. He glared at the rest of them threateningly, "Where is Wanheda?"

"Let him go." Bellamy yelled.

"We don't know who that is! Please, we can help each other." his sister added.

Gabriella felt a chill run down her spine at the sound of Jasper laughing.

He was fucking laughing.

"You think this is funny?" the grounder asked him, glaring down at him dangerously.

When he began to actually cut his knife, all thoughts of protocol went straight out of the window and Gabriella shot the grounder straight in the forehead. A moment later, Wells shot the one that aimed his bow at her on the shoulder and Bellamy shot the other one in the stomach.

"Hold your fire!" Bellamy yelled but Octavia ignored him and killed the remaining grounder by stabbing his chest with a sword.

"Rover one, come in. Repeat, rover one, come in now." Gabriella visibly flinched at the sound of Kane's voice coming from the radio in the rover and she and Bellamy were the first ones to jog towards it.

The two of them ignored the bickering outside as Bellamy spoke into the radio, "We had to shoot three Ice Nation scouts. Cover, Sector Four. Copy. Can you tell us what's going on?"

"When you get here. Over and out."

Gabriella glared at the radio in Bellamy's hand, annoyed at the dismissive tone her step father used.

"Sector Four?" Raven asked in surprise, "Why is Kane so far outside the wall?"

"Maybe Commander Lexa finally owned up to her mistakes and wants to talk." Gabriella shrugged, not even believing her own words and walking back towards the rest of the group.

"Take him home!" Bellamy yelled towards his sister.

"I'm fine." Jasper deadpanned, looking a little dazed, "Thank you for asking."

"Yeah, obviously." Philip shot back sarcastically.

"Nate, take one of the Azgeda horses. Raven will ride in the back with you, Philip can ride with Jasper on the other horse and Octavia will take her own to get you guys back safely." Gabriella ordered, leaving zero room for argument and then turning her attention towards Wells and Monty, "You two are with Bellamy and I."

-

The ride towards Sector Four was dead silent. Gabriella was driving and Bellamy was in the passenger seat while Monty and Wells were sitting in the back. After driving for an hour, Gabriella carefully parked her rover and all four of them immediately got out.

"You were right about Jasper, okay? Is that what you want me to say?" Monty snapped at Bellamy, finally breaking the unbearable silence.

"Quiet." Bellamy rolled his eyes, "Keep your eyes peeled."

Gabriella frowned when Monty looked down at the floor looking like a kicked puppy and subtly kicked Bellamy's shin. After flinching slightly, the freckled man spoke up with a softer edge in his voice, "I could have said no."

"He's getting worse isn't he? I mean, getting drunk every night is one thing but smiling with a knife to your throat? That's next-level damaged?"

Wells sighed, "We're all damaged Monty. He just...has a different way to cope with it."

They walked a little further in silence, only stopping once they caught sight of Kane and Indra walking straight towards them. The sight of the grounder made Gabriella furrow her eyebrows in confusion and tighten her grip on her rifle.

"Who's he with?" Monty asked, never meeting the woman due to being in Mount Weather during the beginning of Skaikru's truce with the twelve clans.

"Indra."

"That's Indra?"

Wells groaned and rubbed a hand over his face, "He must have told her we broke the truce."

"Okay, Kane. Before you yell at me, let me just say it was Bellamy's idea." Gabriella hurried out as soon as Kane and Indra got into earshot.

"We'll deal with that later." her step father told her gently, "This is about Clarke."

"Clarke?" Wells perked up at the mention of his ex-girlfriend, "What about her?"

"She's being hunted." Indra informed them, making Gabriella's eyes widen further until she realized she shouldn't even be that surprised any more.

"Like I said many times before; that girl has a death wish." she commented and sighed under her breath.

"By who?" Monty asked with furrowed eyebrows.

"By everyone."

-

Gabriella was extremely glad she wasn't stuck in the back of the rover with Indra and Kane like Monty and Wells were due to how long the current ride was.

The rover hit a small dumb in the road that made Indra jump in surprise. Kane chuckled slightly, "I'm still getting used to it myself."

"We're almost out of range." Gabriella called over her shoulder, "You sure you don't wanna tell your girlfriend we're looking for her daughter?"

"I'm sure." her uncle rolled his eyes, "I don't want to worry Abby until we know something."

Bellamy huffed and looked at Kane through the rearview mirror, "We know there's a kill order." his gaze soon shifted to Indra, "Your people are big on those."

"It's not a kill order. It's a bounty."

"Tomato. Tomahto." Gabriella muttered under her breath with a roll of her eyes.

"Clarke is a symbol." Indra continued, ignoring her comment, "She's known as Wanheda; the Commander of Death."

"Wonderful."

"The Azgeda scouts we killed were looking for her." Wells informed the two adults in the back, "They thought we were too."

"My people believe that when you kill someone, you get their power." Indra stated, "Kill Wanheda, and you command death."

Kane squinted in confusion,"She's just one girl."

"So was the Commander." the grounder shot back, "What Clarke did at Mount Weather weakened her. The Ice Nation is emboldened. Their queen wants Clarke's power. If her people believe she has it, she will break the coalition and start a war. I can't let that happen."

"It isn't what Clarke did at Mount Weather that weakened her." Gabriella scoffed without thinking, "It's what she did after. She ran like a coward. There's nothing symbolic about it."

Her attention drifted to the buzzing sound on the device next to her and she instantly informed everyone about what it said, "We're officially in Sector Seven. What do you wanna do now?"

"If she's here, she'll need supplies." Indra said, "We'll start at the trading posts."

a/n: this is a long ass chapter which I almost didn't finish tonight but I'm glad I did.

and yeah bellamy and gabi are still a slowburn they're just hooking up

I also won't be updating this book until the middle of august since I'm going on vacation next weekend

words: 7.5k