Elastic Heart

The ground was nothing like Blair had expected, yet everything she had dreamed it would be. So bright and full of color, she reached out her arms and began to spin. The sky was clear and the lightest shade of blue, a complete contrast from the constant blackened outlook when looking out from the windows within the Ark.

The Ark. Her father. The gentle blow of the passing wind which fanned out her long wavy locks as she spun began to lessen. As she gradually reduced the speed at which she turned, her hair eventually dropped back into its natural position. Her split-ends falling just short of below her shoulder blades. Her footsteps halted and her arms fell heavily to her sides.

Blair watched as the pardoned criminals celebrated, cheering as they ran carelessly in and out of the vast forest made up of moss-covered trees-- making the most of finally being free. She too was pleased, ecstatic even. She had grown up being fed the same misconception she was certain everyone else now stood on the ground had. That the earth still needed another hundred years until it became survivable. For Blair, returning to earth was nothing but a pipe-dream. But as she stood with her feet firmly on the ground, that pipe-dream now a reality, she knew a part of her would stay trapped up in the Ark. At least until her father was standing by her side.

Walking back towards the dropship, Blair sat down on the sloping door and drew her knees close to her chest, wrapping her arms lightly around them and pressing her feet firmly down to stop herself from slipping. From where she sat, she could just about spot Atom as he helped collect wood which she assumed would be used for a source of fire when things grew dark. Bellamy was also in her line of sight, his younger sister who Blair had been hastily introduced too stood off to his side. She watched as he spoke animatedly with those around him, appointing various people with roles and barking out his instructions.

Despite herself, Blair giggled ever-so-slightly to herself whilst subtly shaking her head, bemused. "Fancy sharing the joke? God knows I need a reason to laugh right now."

Blair jumped at the abrupt sound of a females voice and the faint squelch of metal against rubber as a blond-haired girl walked down the slope and past her.

"Bellamy," Blair said by way of explanation, glancing back at him to find his eyes looking over in her general direction. She watched as he flashed her a secretive smirk before turning back to whatever task he had at hand. "I think his Guardsman jacket may be done up a little too tight. All the authority has gone to his head."

"At least that would explain why there's no room left for his brain," the girl muttered under her breath, but her theory still made Blair smile. Sprawling out a map on the side of the slope, Blair watched as the blonde began drawling a line across the map, grasping Blair's interest as she spotted Mount Weather written at one end of the perfectly drawn line. The name ringing a distant bell from somewhere within her clouded memory.

"What's that you're doing?"

The girl glanced up from the map and greeted Blair's curious gaze with an exasperated sigh. "I'm trying to find out where we are. We're not on Mount Weather like we're supposed to be and unless we find it soon, we're all going to starve."

Blair unwrapped her arms from around her knees and shuffled until her legs were hanging over the edge of the slope, the map and blond-haired girl positioned on her left. "Well, I sure as hell didn't come all this way just to die of starvation," Blair said, causing the girl beside her to unwittingly smile. "So, tell me what I can do to help."



After around twenty minutes of Blair attempting to assist the blonde whose name she now knew was Clarke in finding their location, both girls breathed a sigh of relief-- their drop-site finally pinpointed.

"Clarke, we've got problems." Blair looked up as the Chancellor's son exited the dropship, his presence disconcerting her more than his words. He was the last person she expected to see down on the ground. "The communication system is dead. I went to the roof, a dozen panels are missing. The heat fried the wires."

"Well all that matters now is getting to Mount Weather," Clarke asserted. "See, look. Blair and I have found our current location. This is us," she explained, using her map to show the dark-skinned boy exactly how far off course the hundred were. "This is where we need to get to if we want to survive."

The Chancellor's son nodded his head in understanding, looking at the map in awe. "Where did you learn to do that?" he asked. A single glance from Clarke and a few silent moments later, he answered his own question. His voice was small as he spoke. "Your father."

The atmosphere between the three rapidly turned tense, but Blair suspected it had nothing to do with her and everything to do with Clarke's father. As Clarke kept her eyes cast down on the map, Blair glanced over at the Chancellor's son stood across from her. He failed to hold her gaze.

"Cool, a map. Can I get a bar in this town? I'll buy you a beer."

"Do you mind?" Blair watched as the Chancellor's son gripped Jasper Jordan by the upper-arm and pushed him back. Moving him a good distance away from Clarke, who looked up from the map having heard the sudden commotion. Blair knew Jasper from her time on the Ark. He wouldn't intentionally go looking for trouble.

"Hey, hey, hey," a vaguely familiar yet unplaceable voice interrupted as Blair stepped in between Wells and Jasper, attempting to diffuse the situation before it even had the chance to start. A large group of boys made up of around six or seven --Blair didn't have enough time to count them to be sure-- stepped up to the Chancellor's son. The front man doing all the talking. "Hands off of him, Wells. He's with us."

"And he's with us," Blair stated calmly, placing herself in front of the imperious looking boy. Blocking his path in case he tried to start something with Wells like she assumed he would. "So back off."

A hand placed itself upon her shoulder and pulled her a step or two back. "Relax. We're just trying to figure out where we are."

"We're on the ground. That not good enough for you?"

All heads turned towards Bellamy, Well's hand slipping from Blair's shoulder in the process. She watched as his eyes scanned across Clarke and Wells before landing on her, holding her gaze a fraction longer then he did with the others. As much as she hated to admit it, she couldn't help but feel slightly giddy as he presented her with another one of his secret smiles. A smile she was beginning to think he only reserved for her.

She was snapped from her wayward thoughts as Wells stepped a few paces towards Bellamy, Clarke and Blair following closely behind him in tow. "We need to find Mount Weather. You heard my fathers message, that has to be our first priority."

Although she had blocked out most of what Chancellor Jaha had told them whilst they were plummeting towards earth, Blair still believed it made sense.

"Screw your father," Octavia sneered, stepping out from her brothers shadow.

Blair sighed. "This isn't about rebelling against the Chancellor's instructions. If Mount Weather is where we need to be in order to survive then I don't care who the orders come from, that's where we should be."

"What? You think you're in charge here?" Octavia questioned, ignoring Blair and fixing Wells with her condescending stare. "You and your little princess. Not to mention Queen Bea over here."

"Do you really think we care who's in charge? We need to get to Mount Weather! Blair's right, it's not because the Chancellor said so. It's because the longer we wait, the hungrier we will get and the harder this will be. How long do you think we'll last without those supplies? We're looking at a twenty-mile trek, okay? So if we want to get there before dark, we have to leave. Now."

Inwardly Blair was fist pumping the air, Clarke's speech winning her round for a second time even though she had already declared that she was in. Eyeing Bellamy, she waited to hear his reaction to Clarke's well-spoken plea.

But it wasn't the reaction she was expecting.

"I've got a better idea, you two go. Find it for us. Let the privileged do the hard work for a change."

The group that had been stood around quietly listening began to cheer, siding with Bellamy despite having heard what Clarke had just explained. Blair couldn't believe it. She wasn't privileged on-board the Ark, far from it in fact. Her father was a janitor and she was set to become a cook if not for her arrest. The Chancellor floated her mother and was eleven days away from floating her too, giving Blair as good a reason to side with Bellamy and against the privileged as anyone. But this wasn't a matter of status, it was a matter of survival.

"You're not listening, we all need to-" Blair missed the last of Wells exhortation as someone pushed their way past her, knocking her roughly to the ground. The dirt and grit beneath her hands cutting into her fair-colored skin.

She was helped back up onto her feet by Atom who appeared out of no-where to be by her side. With his hands on her arms pinning them to her sides in an attempt to restrain her from retaliating, Blair watched as the boy from earlier squared off with Wells once more. "Well, would you look at this everybody. The Chancellor of earth."

"You think that's funny?" Wells retorted. The laughs from the errant teenagers around them meaning that others had.

Without warning the boy kicked Wells in the shin, felling Blair's newly considered friend. She tried to shake off Atoms grip as Clarke rushed forward, only to end up restrained by one of the boys many followers herself.

"No. But that was."

"Atom, let me go!" Blair demanded as he began to drag her back and away from the fight she feared was about to unfold. "He needs my help."

Inside the dropship, Atom finally released Blair's arms. He watched her cautiously as he stood with his back to the opening of the dropship door, knowing her well enough to know that she could attempt to bolt at any moment. Blair wasn't a violent person, but she wasn't a coward either. If someone needed her, she would always do whatever she could to help. A trait she inherited from her mother like her father often told her.

"It's not your fight, Bea. You jumping in to defend him only ends up making him look weak. He needs to learn to stand up for himself."

"Atoms right," Bellamy said, breezing up the ramp and into the dropship as Blair watched everyone disperse behind him. The fight that may or may not of happened clearly over. "How many times do you need to get knocked down before you realize that?"

"I'm surprised you noticed," Blair murmured, absentmindedly brushing her hands against the backs of her thighs to rid them of any remaining particles of dirt.

Bellamy opened his mouth to say something but changed his mind and closed it quickly again, choosing to hold Blair's eye as she stared at him, her face devoid of emotion. She wasn't aware of how long they had stayed that way, stuck in a silent stalemate. But after what she could only assume to have been a few minutes, she tore her eyes from Bellamy and turned to her life-long friend.

"I'm going to find Clarke and Wells, you coming?"



Atom left Blair once she had scouted out Clarke and Wells, swiftly kissing her cheek and reminding her not to react if she found herself stuck in another situation with the boy he told her was called Murphy before he went.

Clarke was tending to Wells injured ankle as she joined them, but both looked up and greeted her with welcoming smiles. "So, Mount Weather. When do we leave?" Finn asked, Blair recognizing him as the infamous space-walker she'd heard stories about.

"Right now," Clarke said, turning to Wells as she continued. "We'll be back tomorrow with food."

"How the two of you gonna carry enough food for the hundred?" Wells asked skeptically.

Turning, Finn grabbed the two boys closest behind him and drew them into the group, revealing their identities as Jasper and Monty. "Four of us. Can we go now?"

Clarke nodded and began to move when Octavia came over, Bellamy hot on her heels. "Sounds like a party. Make it five."

"What are you doing?" Bellamy questioned. His sister replied simply saying she was going for a walk.

Glancing around at the small group playing witness to his younger sisters defiance, Bellamy's eyes found Blair's once more. "Five? You not going, Aurora?"

From over Bellamy's shoulder Murphy stood leaning up with his back against one of the many trees, a small shard of metal getting thrown back and forth between his hands. Knowing her eyes were on him, Murphy smiled a wicked grin, sending a chill running up Blair's spine.

"No, I think I'm going to stay here. And my name's Blair."



Standing with his arms folded tightly across his chest, Bellamy watched the five figures of the group heading for Mount Weather disappear into the blinding sunlight and out of view. His sister being the last person he eventually lost sight of.

Before he knew what he was searching for, his eyes scoped out Blair. She was sat protectively beside a recuperating Wells, his and Atoms words with her earlier doing nothing to diminish her fierce need to defend those she cared for. For some reason unknown to him, Bellamy was glad.

Following her intense burning gaze until his eyes fell upon Murphy, Bellamy's nostrils flared as he watched the younger kid stare back at the girl he found so captivating. Taunting her with his hand-furnished knife.

He knew he needed someone for what he had planned and Murphy seemed like the perfect candidate. At least as Bellamy's second he could keep him close.

But more importantly, Bellamy thought. He could keep him away from Blair.