Elastic Heart

Blair hissed and gritted her teeth as Atom gently applied a wet cloth to her hand and wrist like Clarke had instructed him to. The group of five that had headed out for Mount Weather in search of food and other supplies returned as a group of four only moments after the Murphy incident; Jasper Jordan being the missing link from the group.

From what Blair could make out, the one hundred were no longer the only survivors on the ground. Finn and Clarke referred to them as "Grounders" as they explained what happened to Jasper. A spear had been thrown at him with pinpoint accuracy from three-hundred feet, but according to Clarke, it had not killed him. Blair was deep in thought as Atom continued to clean her wounds. Naturally the anticipation of what this new threat would mean for her and the rest of her people scared her. Finn and Clarke's combined words from before came back to haunt her as she sat.
Radiation won't kill us. The bad news is the Grounders will.

From beside her, Octavia whimpered and ow'd. Bellamy knelt in front of her cleansing her bite-mark of a cut. "What the hell was it?"

Blair turned her face to the side as she listened intently for Octavia's answer. "I don't know," she said, pausing to gasp as Bellamy tied the wet scrap of material around her thigh to cover the gash. "The others said it looked like a giant snake."

"This day just keeps getting better and better," Blair spoke and forced a scoff. "Psychopathic Grounders that want to kill us and now a giant man-eating snake. I mean, what's next?"

Octavia smiled as she looked back at the older brunette sat beside her. "We also saw a deer with two heads."

Despite the gravity of the situation, both girls laughed and smiled. Blair knew if she didn't try to see the funny side and remain positive, the alternative would be to breakdown and cry. She needed to be strong, now more than ever.

Bellamy tried to look and sound serious as he spoke, but seeing Octavia and Blair getting along made it impossible for him not to smile. "You two shouldn't be laughing about all this. Octavia, you could have been killed."

"And she would of been, if Jasper didn't jump in to pull her out." Blair's laughter seized at the mention of Jasper's name. Clarke and Wells walked over and stopped in-front of Bellamy.

"Are you guys leaving? I'm coming too."

"And me," Blair stated after Octavia volunteered.

Bellamy restrained Octavia as she attempted to stand, but Atom wasn't quick enough to do the same to Blair. "No, no. No way. Not again. And you're no good to them with your wrist the way it is."

"Excuse me? My wrist is fi-"

"No, Blair, he's right. You need to stay in camp and keep the burns clean to prevent them from getting infected. And Octavia your legs just gonna slow us down."

Blair opened her mouth but no words came out. She wanted to help find Jasper. Although she hardly knew him, she still didn't like the thought of doing nothing to save him. Besides, Clarke and Wells were her friends, and she wanted to help them in any way she could. Adding insult to injury, Clarke proceeded to ask Bellamy to join the search party with them, much to Wells dismay.

"Why would I do that?" Bellamy asked, showing his ruthlessness once more. Blair idly wondered whether he was as cold-hearted as he often made out or whether it was all an act-- a false face he felt he needed to display. Considering his demeanor on the occasions the two of them had found themselves alone, Blair concluded it had to be the latter.

"Because you want them to follow you," Clarke explained, indicating towards the rest of camp with her eyes. "And right now, they're thinking only one of us is scared." Flashing a smile in Blair's direction, Clarke and Wells headed out.

Bellamy hung back and pondered his next move. Clarke was right, he needed everybody in camp to respect him. They'd managed to removed twenty-four wristbands so far, but that still wasn't enough. "Murphy, come with me," he ordered, not presenting the younger boy with a choice. If he was leaving, there was no-way he'd be leaving Murphy behind. Not unless Blair was leaving with him. "Atom," he then called, drawing the loyal boy in closer as he slipped on his Guardsman jacket. "My sister doesn't leave this camp, is that clear?" He ignored Octavia as she stated she didn't need a babysitter. "Anybody touches her, they answer to me. Lets go."

As Murphy began walking in the direction Clarke and Wells had went, Bellamy glanced back at his sister and the retreating figure of Blair as she made her way towards the dropship. "Atom," he stated again, pulling the girls best-friend out of earshot from everyone else. "The same thing goes for her."



The upper level of the dropship was empty with Monty being the one exception. He was hidden in the far back with only the dim-lit lamp giving his presence away. With the rest of their friends out on a rescue mission to bring back Jasper, Blair figured Monty could do with some company as well as she.

"Hey," Blair said as she walked over and sat down beside him. He jumped at the sound of her voice, the screwdriver dropping from his hand. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."

Monty smiled sheepishly. "Doesn't matter. It's Blair, right?"

Blair nodded and hummed in agreement, resting her elbows on her knees as she sat cross-legged and let her head rest upon her fisted hands. She watched as he nodded and smiled. A smile she was quick to return. After that the two sat in a pleasant silence. Monty focused on the multiple wires he had in his hands and Blair found it fascinating enough just to watch him work. She found trying to understand what Monty was doing a good distraction from the dispute she was having with herself about what she should do. Clarke had said she needed to stay in camp in order to keep her burns clean. But as far as Blair was concerned, they were insignificant compared to Jasper's injury. With her hand now protected and wrapped in cloth, she found no reason for her to stay behind doing nothing.

"I can't believe Finn never went with them to find Jasper," Monty muttered broodingly. "It was because of him that we were out there in the first place."

Blair raised her head as inspiration hit her. On her own she would be unable to work out which way the small group had went, but not if she enlisted the help of Finn. She kissed Monty swiftly on the cheek and headed for the ladder, oblivious to him calling after her asking what the kiss was for. She past Octavia with a boy she didn't recognize following behind her as she exited the dropship. Spotting Finn kicking dirt beneath his boot on the outskirt of camp, Blair picked up her pace as she made her way towards him.

"Where are you going in such a hurry?" Atom questioned, reaching his arm out and halting her in her tracks. Blair didn't meet his gaze as she kept her eyes trained on Finn, scared he disappear out of sight if she let him.

She placed her hand on Atoms shoulder and over-dramatically sighed, walking around his outstretched arm as she spoke. "I need to talk to Finn and you need to check on Octavia."

Atom groaned in frustration as Blair jogged off and disregarded him yelling for her to stop. He was torn between stopping Octavia from doing something defiant with the boy he'd watched her enter the dropship with, and going after his best-friend who Bellamy had instructed not to let leave camp. With his mind made up, Atom entered the dropship.

Bellamy cared more for his little sister after-all, and Blair wouldn't be stupid enough to stray too far on her own.



It took Blair around five minutes of pleading before Finn finally agreed to go with her after Clarke and the others. She understood why he was hesitant to leave camp after what he'd seen, but he could hardly refuse after Blair had quoted what Monty had said. It was Finn that selected Jasper and Monty for the trek to Mount Weather. If it hadn't been Jasper that got speared, it could just as easily have been him.

The silence that fell among the two was less comfortable than the silence she encountered with Bellamy, Blair found. She put it down to the fact it was the first time they'd properly met and spent time together. Finn managed to get a conversation started when he told Blair about the forest which glowed in the dark and the animal footprint he'd found, but like Clarke had been, Blair was skeptical to believe it had been a monkey that left it behind. But as she considered the probability while Finn turned his attention back onto tracking the direction their friends had went, the more she found it plausible. With Clarke and Finn telling them about the Grounders combined with her earlier conversation with Octavia, it all went to prove everything they thought they knew about earth was wrong. So why couldn't there be monkeys walking around?

As she thought more about the Grounders and the presumption that other radiation-mutated animals were close by, Blair closed the small gap that had opened up between herself and Finn. Like in her nightmare the night before, it was the unknown that scared her. As she continued to follow Finn in stepping over fallen debris which made up the forest bed, Blair absentmindedly considered the effect the exposure to radiation must have had on the Grounders. Given a deer had grown an extra head, Blair figured anything was possible. In her mind she was picturing people with extra limbs and deformed faces, nothing she'd want to get too close to.

"The only way the Ark is going to think I'm dead, is if I'm dead. Got it?" Blair recognized Clarke's voice immediately and the voice that followed made her heartbeat quicken.

"Brave Princess."

"Why don't you find your own nickname," Finn forcefully suggested as the two entered the clearing and joined the standoffish group of four. "Call this a rescue party? Gotta split up, cover more ground. Clarke, come with me."

Clarke's eyes found Blair and she gave her a brief nod before continuing onward with Finn. Although she had dismissed her advice about staying at camp, Blair got the impression Clarke was thankful for her showing up when she did and convincing Finn to come along too.

Bellamy's eyes harden when they landed on Blair, and from over his shoulder, Murphy glared.

"I told you not to come," Bellamy vocalized the reason for his annoyance in a menacingly low voice. He liked that she was impulsive and headstrong as much as she was witty and, at times, weak. He wanted to keep her safe.

He had trusted Atom to help him keep her safe.

"And I ignored you," Blair replied simply as she moved to stand in-front of Wells, looking up at him expectantly. "Are we going?"

With a silent bob of his head Wells turned and began walking forward, starting a path further right then the course Clarke and Finn had taken. Blair had only managed two steps before a rough grip on her upper-arm was pulling her back. "I don't think so, Sleeping Beauty. If you're coming then you're staying with me."

Murphy knew with one glance back from Bellamy that it was time for him to walk on. Whilst he was distracted, Blair took the opportunity to pull her arm free from Bellamy's vice-like grip, but remained quiet and still by his side-- much to his surprise. See Bellamy, the brunette smugly thought. I can be compliant.

Unlike Murphy who needed no reassurance before marching off ahead, Wells waited for some sign from Blair to show leaving her with Bellamy was something she wanted. Reluctantly sighing and donning on a mandatory smile, Blair attempted to convey that message.



"Penny for your thoughts?" Bellamy broke the comfortable silence the two had early established as they trailed a good few feet behind Murphy and Wells. He had side-glanced at Blair continually as they walked, trying to spot some sort of clue to gauge what she may have been thinking. But she always seemed too lost it thought to even notice.

Bellamy's question startled her. She didn't want to tell him that she had spent the past however many hours searching for Jasper trying to understand her feelings for the boy beside her. She cared for him, that was something she could no longer deny. There was chemistry and a mutual attraction between them, but also an ever-present void too. The silver bracelet which framed her right-wrist as it swung between them was undoubtedly to blame.

"I was just wondering, does Brave Princess count as one nickname or two?" It wasn't a complete lie; that thought had also crossed her mind. Blair smirked as she looked up at Bellamy, using her hand to shield her eyes from the blinding sun. For the first time that day his Queen-Bea's-Bellamy-Beam was bestowed upon her, and the void between them ceased to exist.

"Why?" Bellamy quipped. "You jealous?"

"Maybe," she answered more truthfully, but kept her voice light to mask the high level of honesty coming from behind it. This was the Bellamy Blair liked, the one who had the ability to take her mind off everything else often just by poking fun at her expense. When he wasn't power-hungry and actively seeking out followers to remove their wristbands in order to fulfill his poorly justified act of revenge.

"Hey," Bellamy said as he took a light hold of Blair's hand, conscious of her burns, his thumb brushing against the cool metal of her wristband as he did so. "You've got nothing to be jealous about, Queen Bea. You're the only girl that's gonna get three."

Seconds passed and Blair had yet to say a word. Her eyes searched Bellamy's as he continued to charm her with her favorite form of smirk, and before her brain had the chance to register her body's actions, Blair's lips were sent crashing against his.