Heaven Can't Wait - Chapter 16
21 Apr 2018 10:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jennickels
Chapter Sixteen - We Need You
Little noises break through the fog of sleep. A bang here. A knock there. Drilling? Bellamy groans when his head starts pounding in time to the racket. He stretches his arms over his head, regretting it a second later when the movement pulls at his stitches. The little girl wakes, too, looking around blearily for the source of the noise. Suddenly, the crate to their right screeches across the steel floor. The girl squeaks in surprise and starts crying."Sorry," someone says. "Didn't see you there."
Bellamy wearily gets to his feet, rubbing the girl’s back as she clings to him in confusion, fingers twisting painfully in his hair again. They seem to wake up like this more often than not. "What's going on?"
"Repairs. We're trying to patch this section up before the big one hits." The guy shifts from one foot to the other, eyes darting nervously to the girl. "It's going to get pretty loud in here."
“Got it.” They navigate through the labyrinth of boxes and junk until Bellamy finds an airlock open to the outside. Sun spills in forcing him to squint as they step outside. Almost instantly, he feels relief. The cool air soothes his tingling skin, and the sun warms his aching muscles. The sky is a crystal clear blue and not a cloud in site—stormy or otherwise.
If only it could stay like this.
It won’t, though.
Bellamy steps back to allow more of Raven's crew inside. He watches as they climb all over the structure, welding and sealing the tiniest defects. Raven appears at his side, looking tired. She grimaces when she shifts her weight.
"How's it looking?" he asks her, gesturing at the station.
She frowns. "Honestly? Not good. This section of the station took a beating when they crashed. Structurally, it's sound enough to use although the tilting of the floor makes it impractical for anything other than storage."
"Or parties," Bellamy says with a laugh, noticing a worker holding up a discarded bra from one of the boxes.
"Or naps," Raven adds, getting a smile from Bellamy. "The problem is the little micro-fractures that you can't see. We can patch up the cracks and tears, hoping to get them all. But seeing micro-fractures?"
"I'm guessing it's not so easy."
"I'm working on something to make them more visible, but it takes time."
A luxury we no longer have.
Raven continues to glare at the station, arms crossed over her chest. She's lost in her thoughts—calculations and lists of things to do. And whatever else she thinks about that Bellamy can never hope to understand.
"No," she shouts suddenly, taking a few pained steps forward. "Not there. You're going to bring the whole scaffold down. Just put it over there." She sighs and rubs at her temples, muttering curses under her breath. “Idiots.”
"When was the last time you slept?" he asks, as she rubs intensely at her temples,
"I'll sleep after the death wave comes.”
"You're not much help to us if you work yourself to death."
Raven rolls her eyes. "Says the guy constantly putting himself in danger."
"Not the same thing."
Raven turns her full attention on him, eyes narrowed. "How is it not the same thing? Getting yourself killed doesn't help anyone."
"The difference," he says, staring off into the distance, "is that we need that big brain of yours. Me? I'm expendable."
Her mouth drops open. Then she pinches him. "I don't want to ever hear you say that again. You are not expendable, Bellamy Blake. We need you."
Bellamy shakes his head. "You'd all be just fine without me. There are dozens of people that can do my job. There's only one Raven Reyes." He gives her a cocky half-grin, getting another annoyed eye-roll in return. But the corners of her mouth curl up despite the fierce look she's trying to give him.
Across the yard, people start shouting.
What now?
A group gathers around two men as they take swings at each other. Bellamy recognizes Henderson from Farm Station. Of course. He lost his entire family when Azgeda attacked. He makes no distinction between the clans. The only good Grounder is a dead one, according to him.
The Arkadians surround the Grounders they’ve isolated, shoving them around. One-on-one isn’t the goal, though. Henderson doesn’t care about a fair fight. Two others from Farm Station jump into the fray. It’s not going to end well.
Members of the Guard race from every corner of the yard, shock-batons already out. But half of them don't do anything. In fact, he’s pretty sure some of them are cheering on Henderson. What the hell?
The Grounders are completely outnumbered and taking a beating. The Guards that are trying to do their job—like Miller and his dad—are held back.The fight grows out of control fast with more people joining in.
“They’re going to start a freaking riot,” Raven says, watching just as intently.
Bellamy looks from her to the fight to the girl in his arms. Damn it. He pries the girl from his neck, shoving her into Raven’s arms. "Watch her a second." He doesn't wait for a response.
"This is what I was talking about," Raven yells after him as the girl starts wailing. “We need you.”
Bellamy has to shove his way through the gathered crowd. "Knock it off," he screams. “Move.” He recognizes more than a few kids from the dropship getting in on the action. For some reason, this angers him more than anything. Maybe he expects more from them after everything they’d been through. Maybe I expect too much.
"What the hell is going on?" he yells, but something slams into his back before he can do anything to stop the fight. He falls forward, barely keeping his face out of the mud. He's hit again—a boot to his ribs, a fist to the side of his head. He rolls to his back, kicking out, connecting with a knee and manages to land a few good punches, but in the end, all he can do is curl into a ball.
Miller finally forces his way to Bellamy, tossing his assailant to the side and helping him to shaky legs.
“Jesus Christ, this is insane,” his friend says as they’re bumped and banged into each other. There’s a cut above his right eye.
The fight ends with the pop pop pop of automatic gunfire. Kane stands in the middle of the chaos looking more pissed than Bellamy has ever seen him.
"Would someone like to tell me what the hell is going on?" Kane shouts, returning his rifle to his chest, one finger tapping near the trigger for emphasis.
Nobody says anything.
"I just want to know who threw the first punch." He’s looking at Bellamy like he’s supposed to know.
Bellamy shakes his head. "I didn't see."
Two Guards—Tyson and Olsen—drag over a couple of Grounders that were obviously in the scuffle—faces battered and bloody.
“These are the guys,” Tyson says. “Saw this one start the whole thing. Savages.” He spits on the ground.
The Grounder says something Bellamy doesn’t understand but recognizes as a curse. Tyson shakes him hard and snaps open his baton.
The tension in the yard is suffocating. Or maybe it feels that way because of his bruised ribs. Kane waits, but no one else comes forward.
“Fine,” Kane says, looking disappointed. “Take them to the stockade. Everyone else go back to work or you’ll join them.”
The crowd disperses slowly, muttering and mumbling to themselves. Kane joins Bellamy and Miller who quickly excuses himself. Traitor.
"This," Bellamy says to Kane before the other man can open his mouth, "is why I can't take that job."
"No, this is why you're perfect for it. You instinctively tried to stop it-"
"And then got my ass kicked."
"Well-"
"While half the Guard stood there and watched. Or joined in.” He was pretty sure they were the guys that attacked him. He wipes a trickle of blood from his busted lip. “The Grounders want me dead and so do more than a few Arkadians.”
"That isn't true."
Across the yard, the girl starts screaming again. Raven is already heading their way.
"I'm done talking about this. I'm going to go get cleaned up and find something to eat since I missed breakfast," Bellamy says, voice hard. He doesn’t know why he’s being so combative with Kane after everything the man’s done for him.
The girl launches herself into his arms as soon as Raven gets close. Her face is streaked with tears and snot, hair sticking to her cheeks and eyelashes. She immediately tangles her fingers in his hair and lays her head on his shoulder.
Kane looks like he wants to say more, but Bellamy just walks away, leaving him to deal with the aftermath. He makes it a few yards before his eyes zero in on Octavia standing among some of the Grounders watching the events.
Thank God.
He starts to go to her but one hard look stops him cold. She shakes her head in disgust and turns her back to him.
At least she’s safe.
