CHAPTER EIGHT
HUGS ALL AROUND
"i miss that happy friend that i had"
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Pressed against the mud with a heavy body ontop of her was not exactly the warm welcome Dylan had expected upon her arrival to Camp Jaha. She didn't expect something as excessive as a 'welcome home Dylan' party banner, nor did she think it would be celebrated with cakes, flowers and balloons, but she did hope for a nicer greeting then being thrown face first at the ground.

But she'd take what ever she could get.

     Only a weeks prior to this Dylan would have been raging at this, but after training with Delphia she had learnt a lot about staying calm and patient. Dylan liked to believe she was just the slightest bit of a better person now then she was before.

     Bellamy wasn't.

     "Get the hell off of her." The heavy weight that had previous crushed Dylan suddenly flew off. Bellamy made sure to get a good punch in, leaving Charles Pike with blood trickling down his nose. The man glared widly at the Blake boy, murder in his mind.

     "We can't just let grounders walk in with open gates and throw them a party? I don't care if you know this one, they are all the same." The man growled, seeing red. Dylan got to her feet, wiping the mud off of her face. With a swift move she knocked the man straddling Lincoln off of him, helping him up to his feet.

     Charles Pike was a very small part of Dylan's life back on the Ark. He was a teacher of sorts, and had the main task of teaching the young delinquents survival skills on the ground. Pike was a very driven man, and on paper was a very nice man. He was definitely not the biggest fan of John Murphy, as the said boy constantly cause ruckus in his classes. And in turn, he never really liked Dylan, despite her being Marcus Kane's daughter.

     But the small encounters Dylan had with the man had been nice enough. The man was easy to talk to, and usually always had a welcoming look on his face. Dylan could clearly see that the man infront of her right now wasn't the same man that had thought her basic survival skills. The look on his eyes and the wrinkles forming on his forehead let her know that.

     The only ones that were suppose to take these earth skill classes were the hundred teenagers that got shipped down to earth. They would need the skills. Marcus Kane was just oddly paranoid about something happening to his dear daughter, which is why he had Pike give Dylan lessons every now and then.

     Little did she know the massacre of a welcome Pike and fellow arkadians had received upon arriving to earth. Not only was it a crash landing, but when they opened the doors and let the kids play in the snow, grounders had appeared and turned the white snow red with blood. Pike would never forget the merciless slaying and the defenseless feeling. And sadly, it would not only come to haunt him for the rest of his life, but it would taint his ability to see clearly.

     Dylan didn't know that yet, no one did.

     "Consider me wounded." Dylan said, arms sassily placed on her hips. "I thought we had the best student teacher relationship ever. Didn't I ace your survival class?" The Kane girl joked, watching realization dawn on the man.

     The girl turned her head to the side, tears threatening to spill when her eyes fell on her father once again. This time there was no stopping her. Like a little kid she threw herself into her father's protecting embrace, clenching him in a deep seeded fear that he'd just vanish into thin air. God, Dylan couldn't remember the last time she had truly and genuinely hugged her father. After the divorce and her mother's death, they slipped apart, and every word uttered to him was halfhearted and empty. Nothing about this very moment was empty, though. Dylan had carried this hollow feeling inside herself since the day she got separated from her father. A feeling she thought she'd never get rid of.

But hugging her dad? Seeing him again after all this time? It was everything Dylan could ever have wished for and more. The hollow feeling was gone effectively immediately, and in its place; a horrible yet delightful feeling of overwhelming emotions that caused tears to stain Marcus' sweater. He didn't mind.

Kane had no idea what to think, what to feel. It was like he was numb all over yet at the same time on an overload of emotions. He firmly believed that a parent should never outlive their child. Losing his wife was hard, but losing his daughter was a whole new level of soul crushing. While they were all still at the brink of war, and they had several problems and threats chasing them, standing there hugging his daughter semt like an answer to all his prayers. It reassured him that everything was in fact going to be okay, maybe sooner, maybe later. Right now it didn't really matter. Because everything was going to be okay.

"You've changed." Was the first thing he said when they pulled away from the hug. His little girl was grown up, but she was still his little girl. And his mission was to make sure he protected her as much as he possible could from now in forward.

"Didn't think you'd notice my new hairdo." Dylan chuckled, wiping her teary eyes. Kane cracked a smile, a genuine smile. Oh, how he had missed her lame attempts at lightening the mood. Dylan cleared her throat, looking over at Lincoln who was silently and slightly awkwardly standing behind her. "This is Lincoln." She introduced, watching people stare at the huge man with a mixture of fear and awe.

     Lincoln, like many other grounders, was ridiculously tall, especially compared to Dylan. Dylan had tried teasing him about eating his greens as a child, but he never really thought much of it. Standing a crowd of the terrified arkadians make him very aware of how different he was compared to them. He was sticking out like a sore thumb.

     Kane looked the grounder up and down with a skeptical look, narrowed eyes. This was the first time he had been this close to one without his hand on his gun, and he didn't like the feeling. "You're friends with a grounders?" While his tone was somewhat warm due to the shocking revelations of his daughter's return, he still managed to speak venomously of the man in front of him.

     "Actually. . ." Dylan trailed off, grabbing ahold of Lincoln's big hand. "We're together."

     A collective wave of gasps sounded through the crowd at Dylan's words. Lincoln gazed down at the short girl with wide eyes. He too had been caught completely off guard by her words. Sure, they acted like they were together, but hadn't really talked about it in that sense. And truth be told Lincoln wasn't completely sure what that meant.

     "What?!"

     Bellamy didn't share the same reaction as the other. He grinned widely instead, pulling Lincoln into hug. "It's great seeing you again, really. Thank you for keeping her safe." While Bellamy and Lincoln never had the nicest and most stable relationship, Bellamy was greatful to the grounder for protecting his friend. So for now he was willing to put their differences aside and focus on the common ground they had. The common ground being Dylan.

     "What is going on?" A female voice yelled. The familiar blonde pushed through the crowd. Dylan grinned widely at Clarke Griffin. Behind her Raven was standing sporting crutches. "Oh my god, Dylan!"

     While Clarke wasn't the most affectionate type, she couldn't help pulling the Kane girl into a quick hug. Raven was next in line to do so. Fortunately, Dylan was just as happy to see them as they were to see her.

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     After passing Dylan for hugs all around, she was finally given a fresh change of clothes. So was Lincoln. Then the two was given a tour of camp Jaha. It was named after Chancellor Jaha who apparently had heroically sacrificed himself to save everyone. Dylan felt for him, she really did, despite him not being her favorite person in the world. She felt for Jaha and Wells.

Right now Dylan was sitting next to someone she hadn't talked to since she was around the age of fourteen; Caroline 'Cassie' Leith. Cassie Leith was the biggest brat Dylan had ever encountered in her eighteen years of living. Not only was she daddies little good girl, but she was a total diva. Which is the exact reason Dylan loved her but at the same time hated her.

Cassie was born and raised in Alpha station by two loving parents Ray and Mary Leith. Her parents went out of their way to make sure Cassie had the most comfortable and shielded childhood ever. It left her with the impression she owned the world, or in their case, the Ark. And for some reason everyone fed into the idea. Cassie was sarcastic, rude, judgemental and quite frankly a bitch. Kinda like Dylan, but at the same time not at all like Dylan.

The two were friends to a certain extent, but not really. Frenemies, if you will.

     After Dylan completely fell of the wagon and went batshit crazy with Murphy, Cassie's parents decided for their daughter that the two would never to hang out again. Which was fine by Cassie. She didn't like the fact that Dylan didn't just fall at her feet, and she preferred people who did.

"What is thst smell?" Cassie asked with her nose scrunched up in disgust, judgmental eyes screwing into Dylan's eyes. Dylan shrugged, taking a quick sniff of herself.

"It's me." Dylan nonchalant responded, snickering when Cassie slid further away from the girl.

"Doesn't these barbarians shower or something? Is that, like, another a thing in their world or whatever?" Lincoln was sitting next to Dylan. He was rolling his eyes— a bad habit he had gotten from Dylan— at every other world Cassie said. The way she masked her insults with a feigned ignorance was really getting on his nerves, and the only thing dropping him from shutting her up was Dylan's reassuring hand on his.

     As you probably can guess, Lincoln wasn't exactly a celebrity in camp Jaha. In fact, he was quite the opposite. Where ever he went, glares were directed at him. Some people made snide comments every now and then, but it wasn't something he couldn't handle. Dylan was always at his side to shoot back at anyone who dared insult him.

     "God, how long is this going to take." Dylan groaned, head resting against the metal wall behind her. Inside the door in front of them was a room filled with several of the councils memembers from the ark. Several because some had died in the crash. Some of these council members included Abby Griffin, Marcus Kane, Charles Pike and Ray Leith. Ray was Cassie's dad. They were all discussing what the next move would be against the grounders threatening to attack, and how they would deal with Lincoln being there.

     Let's just say, having the enemy sleeping inside of your camp when war was about to break loose wasn't exactly anyone's wet dream. Well, except for Dylan. . .

"Are you just going to let you're daughter be with that?" Charles Pike spat, narrowed eyes directed at Kane. Kane ran a hand over his face. He was exhausted, and he just wanted to spend time with Dylan.

"My daughter marches to the beat of her own drum, she always has." Marcus started. "She's growing up and I can't control every part of her life, including this one."

"So you're okay with it?" Ray Leith said in complete shock. "You're okay with you daughter running around with one of those killers? Because I don't want anyone of those monsters near my Cassie."

Marcus slammed his hands down on the table in front of him. "I don't like this, I don't like any of this!" He yelled. "But obviously my daughter isn't the only one who seems to trust this grounder. Bellamy, Raven and Clarke all seem to have some sort of history with him. I'm not saying we should open the gates and invite all the grounders in for a feast, I'm just saying these kids have been around down here longer then we have, and having their input might be out best shot at peace."

"Exactly! Their kids. We can't let kids control this camp, they are the reason these grounders are after us in the first place!" Ray stated.

"We are the reason." Abby joined the conversation. "We made the decision to send these kids down. They have been doing their best to save their and our asses. Yes, they are just kids, and we'll do our best at protecting them."

Dylan could hear muffled yells from inside the room but it was too hard to decipher what they were saying. "This is so lame." Cassie groaned. "You've gotten so lame, earth has ruined you. Or maybe it was prison life. Either way, you suck now."

Dylan shot Cassie an offended look. "I'm not lame, and I don't suck." She defended.

"Uh, yes you are. You're all goodie two shoes now, following the laws and orders from the council. The Dylan I knew wouldn't have been sitting around on her ass waiting for her next order." Cassie said, the smirk on her lips triggering Dylan's annoyance. "You're all dark and gloomy now."

"I'm not waiting around for an order!" Dylan exclaimed. It was fascinating how Cassie knew exactly what to do or say to get under Dylan's skin. The truth was that if anyone else told Dylan she was boring she would simply flip them off. There was just something about Cassie that made Dylan's skin crawl.

"Oh yeah? Prove it." Cassie challenged, one brow arched.

"I'll prove it alright."

word count; 2409
a/n

writing this chapter I desperately have to pee, but some things are more important ! while i am juggling not only writing this book ( and like fifty others ) but also work and school, my full attention is on updating for you guys ! it's truly such a time consumer and distraction to write a book, but it's also such a love and passion of mine and my dreams are coming true. battlefield is close to hitting 100k reads, which is just out of this world. so as a thanku, here's chapter eight.

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