Rosie was startled by the door in front of her swinging open. She was even more startled to see someone she didn't recognize, shooting her an equally confused look.

"Uh, can I help you?" The girl questioned, slowly closing the door behind her and taking a step into the hall.

Rosie was foolish to believe that things would go unchanged without them. Of course someone new would inhabit John's old room, why wouldn't they? Just because her world seemed to slow without him around didn't mean everyone else's would.

"No," Rosie's voice was soft and she averted the girl's gaze, embarrassed to be found just loitering in the hall. "I'm sorry."

With that, she turned to move away, back in the direction she had came.

"Wait," The girl urged, stopping Rosie in her tracks. "I haven't seen you around before."

Rosie turned on her heels, the confusion of the situation distracting her from the sadness she had felt moments before. Her eyes scanned over the girl, and she was certain she had never seen her before. The most odd part about the realization was that she was certain the girl was around her age. Who was she and where had she been the few months before when Rosie was there last?

"Josephine," She stretched her hand out, a smile on her face. "Most people just call me Jo."

"Rosie," She accepted the handshake tentatively.

The only explanation that seemed possible was that she was a grounder who had quickly assimilated with the people of Arkadia. Although that felt unlikely, Rosie knew it wasn't impossible. In fact, Octavia had assimilated to grounder lifestyle rather seamlessly.

"Ah," A look of realization seemed to wash over Jo's face as she pulled her hand back. "So you're the Rosie that Bellamy's always talking about. You have no clue how relieved he was when you came back."

Rosie's confusion was only deepened by this. Not only does this girl know Bellamy, but she's close enough to him that he's spoken about Rosie. Who is she and why doesn't Rosie recognize her?

"Right," Rosie nodded skeptically. "What station are you from?"

Jo seemed to suck in a breath that took awhile to release. Immediately Rosie recognized that the question struck a chord, but she couldn't figure out why. She was certain that Jo wasn't one of The 100, so what could she possibly have to be ashamed of?

"I'm not actually a member of, uh, 'Skaikru,'" Jo did air quotes with her fingers, avoiding eye contact with the red-head girl before her.

Rosie's eyebrows furrowed together. While this explained why she didn't recognize Jo, it only brought on a flurry of more questions.

"Then, who are you? A grounder?"

"No," There was a pause, as if Jo were weighing her next words. Rosie waited, no other explanation coming to mind.

"I was one of the mountain men."

❀

"If you've come back to fight some more, I'm not in the mood." Bellamy called over his shoulder when he hear the door open, not bothering to look back.

Rosie had become accustomed to constant back and forth with Murphy, but with Bellamy, it felt exhausting. Her relationship with Bellamy was different, obviously. For so long, she had followed him and respected his word like gospel, because they were family. In fact, there was a time when he was the only family she had. Now, after months of finding herself with another outcast by her side, no part of her felt like blindly following Bellamy ever again.

"I'm not here to fight," Rosie shut the door behind her. "But I need answers."

Bellamy whipped around quickly at her words, a look of confusion plastered on his face. It was clear he no longer recognized the girl standing before him. Rosie couldn't blame him, she wasn't sure she even recognized herself anymore, but, she wasn't upset by it. She felt, perhaps, this was who she was always meant to be. The quiet observer she was before had died in the bunker, and she didn't mind.

"What are you talking about?"

"Jo." Rosie stated firmly, taking another step forward.

As quickly as the name had left Rosie's lips, Bellamy had turned a shade of pale white. He tried to recover, but unfortunately for him, he had not changed. Rosie could see right through him.

"What about her?" He did his best to remain nonchalant.

"What do you mean 'what about her?' You didn't think mentioning to me that there was was a survivor was relevant?" Rosie tried her best to maintain her composure.

"How did you find out?" Bellamy had recovered from the shock of the question and was fully back in serious mode. He stood from his bed, standing tall before the girl. It wasn't enough to make her back down.

"Why does that matter?" Rosie threw her arms down. She wasn't going to let him change the subject.

Bellamy sighed, knowing he had lost. He stepped back, taking a seat on his bed and patting the spot next to him. While everything he did was to protect the ones he loved, he only seemed to push them away. In his eyes, Octavia was playing grounder, the enemy. Rosie had left him and returned a stranger. Clarke was in the grounder capital with no intentions of returning to her real family. And Gina, she was just gone, because of his faults.

"Jo is Cage Wallace's daughter," He started, pausing to give Rosie a moment to process the information.

Rosie thought back on the late night they had stayed up talking. Bellamy had talked while she listened, just like old times. He told her of the horrors he experienced, and the conditions of the grounders. While the town's leader, Dante Wallace, was most definitely complicit, he also seemed to be a man who just wanted to keep his people safe, which Rosie couldn't fault him for. Cage Wallace, on the other hand, was the monster of his tale. How was she supposed to process this information?

"How did she survive?" This was the first question Rosie thought to ask, although many floated through her head.

"Cage ensured she was the first one to receive the transfusion that would allow her to survive on the outside."

There was a pause and Rosie realized Bellamy was about to take this explanation slow. He was speaking to her as if any second she would freak out, and she understood why. Even though Bellamy had witnessed her risk her life for him and knew of her crimes, he still didn't recognize the strength she held. Rosie was a hurricane, a force to be reckoned with, yet Bellamy had only seen a thunder storm.

"Jo isn't like him or some of the others," He assured, but Rosie had already assumed that. If she were anything like her father, she would be dead. In fact, Rosie was surprised Jo was still alive even if she were different. The people of the ark were not always the most understanding or accepting, and Rosie of all people knew that.

"She's been here ever since the survivors of the mountain came back. She's worked with us and has been nothing but transparent." Bellamy continued. "Honestly, I don't know why. When Lincoln killed her father, she lost any sense of family she had left."

"Blood isn't always family," Rosie spoke up finally. She had no desire to reignite their earlier argument, but her statement was an undeniable truth. John and Bellamy were more her family than her mother had been in a while. It was why she struggled to mourn her.

"Yeah, that's true," Bellamy scratched at the back of his neck. "But still, she's proved herself to be with us from the start."

Rosie took in his words and found herself with a small ball of envy resting in her stomach. While she knew that the people of Arkadia viewed her as a freak or a psychopath because of her crime, she had always felt there was no budging with those views. She would always be trapped within that bubble. But, seemingly for Jo, she had worked her way up to a place of respect and acceptance within a few months.

"And you two..." Rosie paused, considering if her next words were worth uttering. She already knew the answer, but she asked anyways. "You guys are close?"

"I mean, yeah," He nodded. "I guess you could say that."

Rosie could not fault him for the answer. She knew he would always seek to protect who he saw as the underdog. He was drawn to those who reminded him of his sister, forced into silence and locked beneath the floor boards. The ones who others had written off and thrown away the key. It was the exact reason he had always protected her.

"If you give her a chance, I know you two will get along." He assured.

The sentiment reminded Rosie of Bellamy's efforts to push Octavia and her together. While there was no bad blood between the two, they never exactly bonded on the ground. In fact, Rosie can't think of a time they spoke past pleasantries. Before she had left, she viewed Octavia as foolish and reckless for defying Bellamy to protect Lincoln. Upon coming back, Rosie understood Octavia. In fact, she wondered if the two were more alike than she had previously realized.

"Maybe," Rosie responded, although she knew it wasn't convincing. While she wouldn't write the girl off, like so many had done to her, she wasn't ready to accept with her open arms off of the little she had to go off of.

Bellamy nodded, presumably knowing the response was the best he was going to get.

"How did you find out, though?" Bellamy returned to his previous question, clearly still stuck on it.

"I was just trying to clear my head when I ran in to her outside of her room," Rosie explained, somewhat exasperated by the question. As quickly, as the last words left her mouth, she regretted them.

"Outside of her room?" Bellamy poised, renewed confusion washing over him. "Jo is no where near her, she's no where anyone. What were you doing on that wing?"

Rosie tensed, careful when picking her next words. She knew why her feet had carried her there, to a hall of rejects no one wanted to live by. She knew she would find solace visiting a place that John had frequented, a place she presumed to be untainted by those who kept him away. She was searching for the comfort of a ghost who could no longer hold her.

"I just needed space, okay?"

Her snappy response seemed to make everything click inside of Bellamy. A realization washed over his face, which soon turned too disgust.

"Jo is in Murphy's old room." It was a fact he stated that needed no follow up.

While Rosie wanted to spurt out arguments, reasons why that did not matter, she couldn't. She couldn't bring herself to deny something that meant so much to her.

"And Murphy was on the Jaha trip with you." Bellamy seemed to be thinking out loud, piecing together the pieces that seemed inconceivable.

"So?" Rosie uttered, although her voice was now weak. The strength she had recently become accustomed to showing was slowly dissipating.

"Your dad told me how you refused to come back with them," He continued. "You and Murphy both did."

There was a beat of silence.

"You weren't alone in that bunker were you?"

"No." Her voice was quiet as her eyes studied the floor. She couldn't bring herself to look at him, not with the images of John running through her head.

Bellamy stood from his place on the bed and crossed the room, leaving without another word. She knew he didn't want to hear anything else from her. The door slammed behind him, causing Rosie to jump in her seat.

Perhaps she would have cried if she didn't already feel so drained. It felt as though that was all she had been doing lately. She mourned a man who wasn't quite dead, but she had no hope of seeing ever again. She mourned her slowly deteriorating friendship, the closest thing she had to family since she was locked up. She mourned the innocence of the little girl who had died right beside those grown men who knew better.

But she wouldn't allow herself to feel guilty or sorry for what her and John had, even if it did hurt Bellamy. He had hurt her in more ways than he would probably ever accept, so perhaps they were even.

As she sat, feeling numb on Bellamy's bed, she was brought back to the day that started this all. The day he left her. For the first time ever, she didn't look back at that day with anger or pain. It had brought her John, and more importantly, it had made her find herself.

Bellamy leaving her before had brought her light, and if he left again, she was strong enough now to find the fucking sun.

A/N: Hi I'm back with many messages!

First things first, if you have not yet heard about the accusations against Bob Morley and Eliza Taylor/Morley, I suggest you go to Arryn Zech's instagram page and read into them.

I am absolutely disgusted by their actions and no longer support the actors. That being said, I never used Bellamy or Clarke face claims and will not use images of them. I suggest as readers, you imagine these characters differently. If you need characters to imagine, I suggest Drew Roy for Bellamy and Emily Kinney for Clarke, although the face claim is entirely up to the reader.

Secondly, I want to re-iterate that while this is a John Murphy fic, Rosie's growth is something I love writing and I cannot rush into their reunion. I need a build-up that makes sense, but I hope these chapters are not boring you all. If they are, please communicate that to me.

Next, Jo is a character I had created for another story I was writing, entirely about her. I eventually scrapped it, but she is dynamic and something I wanted to include. She is a secondary character that will be relevant to the story.

I'm sorry for the long waits in between chapters but I hope you guys enjoy this update and I want to thank you for the continued love I get on both this story and Rosie. Your comments keep me going. I love you guys. Thank you.