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jennickels) wrote2022-04-25 10:03 am
Heaven Can't Wait - Chapter 58
Chapter Fifty-Eight - Not All Hope Is Lost
Bellamy spends the rest of the day going over a growing pile of reports while trying to convince himself that Heaven is perfectly safe with Jeff who is definitely telling the truth about his repair work. He’s not doing a very good job of either, though.
The anxiety continues to fester with each new altercation he has to assess. Tensions between the Grounder and Arkadian refugees camped in the halls are growing by the minute. He’s had to leave four times to break up fights and talk to people, but nothing is helping. Lockup isn’t much of a threat when they just catch and release people because of space problems.
Reluctantly, he begins to understand the way things ran on the Ark. Floating was the only alternative, but he doesn’t want to believe they’re at that point already.
The doors have only been closed a few days for crying out loud.
“What are you doing?” Harper asks, heading for the time clock on the wall.
Bellamy startles out of his thoughts then looks blankly at the tablet in front of him. He shakes his head to clear it, but it doesn’t really help.
“Aren’t you coming to dinner?”
“Oh, right.” Clarke invited me to dinner at her place. With all of our friends. He swallows hard. “I just have to finish up some work.”
Harper quirks an eyebrow and crosses her arms, head tilted to one side. “You’ve been working all day.”
He scoffs. “I don’t think I get that luxury of not working anymore.” But he pushes the tablet to the side and locks some paper files in the desk drawer before standing and stretching.
Harper isn’t going to go away unless he agrees to go with her. She relaxes when he’s finally moving but is quiet as they pick their way through the throngs of people huddled in the halls heading to the Mess to get their evening rations.
There’s a short line of mostly Guards coming off their shift waiting on one side of the room while the rest is filled with the noise and commotion of nearly a hundred Grounders just trying to survive another day.
They join the line as Jasper stumbles into the room, tripping over a Grounder kid and knocking him to the floor. Bellamy groans as the kid’s parents square up with the obviously intoxicated Jasper who gets to wobbly legs, laughing the entire time.
Monty comes in a beat later, apologizing to the Grounders while trying to drag Jasper away. The Grounders seem satisfied that Jasper meant no harm to their uninjured kid who finds Jasper’s antics amusing by his peels of laughter.
“He’s getting worse,” Harper whispers. “He’s moved on to some really strong Jobi nut tea. He’s not sharing with anyone anymore.”
Monty drags Jasper over to Bellamy and Harper. Jasper is suddenly fascinated by his hands, waving them in front of his eyes with a dumb look on his face. Monty sighs when they get in line but doesn’t say anything. Harper gives him a peck on the cheek then wraps her arms around his waist, leaning against his shoulder.
Jasper starts to wander away, but Bellamy drags him back before he can get into more trouble. He’s having even more second thoughts about dinner tonight. Jasper is going to be a handful, and he’s pretty sure it’s not what Clarke has in mind for her “party.”
After they finally get their rations, Bellamy takes a firm grip on Jasper’s arm. “I think you need to go home and get some rest.”
Jasper snorts then trips over his own feet—Bellamy’s hold the only thing that keeps him off the floor. Bellamy shakes his head then looks to the very tired-looking Harper and Monty.
“Why don’t you guys go ahead, and I’ll take Jasper home. Tell Clarke I’ll be by later.”
“You don’t have to do that,” Monty says, obviously resigned to being his best friend’s keeper.
“Really, Monty—take the night off. I’ve got Jasper.”
Monty and Harper exchange looks before Monty reluctantly nods.
Harper smiles, squeezing Monty tighter. “Thanks, Bellamy,” she says, tugging Monty to the exit. “Good luck.”
Bellamy rubs his face, regretting his decision as soon as his friends are gone. Jasper is trying to open the wrapper of his protein bar with little success, instead choosing to just gnaw on the packaging, crumbling the contents inside.
“Come on, Jasper, let’s go get some sleep.”
“But I’m not tired,” Jasper slurs. His lidded eyes say otherwise.
Bellamy just drags him out of the Mess Hall and back to the quarters he shares with Monty and Harper on the lower level. Thankfully, Bellamy has the master code to get into any room because Jasper is too wasted to punch in his door code. He does collapse into bed without a fight, throwing an arm over his eyes.
Bellamy stands there awkwardly for a moment before taking a seat on the edge of the bed. He runs his hands through his hair. “I don’t know what to do with you anymore, Jasper. Something’s going to have to give.”
“It’s gonna be the door,” Jasper mumbles.
Bellamy doesn’t know what he means, but it sounds ominous. A moment later his friend is snoring loudly. Bellamy watches his chest rise and fall steadily before giving him a pat and leaving.
He’s at the door to his office before he remembers he’s supposed to be going to Clarke’s. He’s really not in the mood for a party—he’s got too much on his mind. He unlocks his office and drops onto the sofa with a sigh. Clarke will be mad if he doesn’t show up. She might send someone to find him. She might come by herself.
Weariness takes over. His ribs ache and his wrists hurt from a night in shackles. And the ever-present headache tickles the back of his brain. He grabs the pain killers from the desk and downs one with a bite of his protein bar.
I’ll just lay here a minute until the headache eases then I’ll go see Clarke. That way she can’t say I didn’t at least show up.
The voice laughs at him, but Bellamy just covers his eyes with his arm and tries to calm his racing thoughts. Soon everything fades away.
Bellamy wakes with a start when his radio squawks at exactly 0700. He scrambles to find the device he placed on the coffee table last night and nearly falls off the sofa.
“Bellamy,” Kane’s voice says, slightly garbled by static. Does nothing work right in this place?
He finally grabs the radio and tunes it to the right frequency. “Yeah?” he says with a yawn.
“Can you come down to Engineering.”
Bellamy grunts an affirmative then forces himself off the sofa. He’s positioning his belt and gear when there’s a knock on the door. He looks up to see Clarke standing there nervously, arms around herself.
“Going to breakfast?” she asks.
“Engineering,” he tells her, joining her in the hall.
“Me too.”
They quietly make their way through the sleeping refugees to a more open corridor before Bellamy asks what’s going on.
Clarke grimaces. “They’re retrieving the bodies.”
“Already?”
“Raven says it’s safe enough. She thinks we’ll be able to open parts of the station back up starting tomorrow. She’s going to send her crews in today to check for any damage and get repairs done.”
Bellamy nods. “That’s good. People can’t keep living like this.”
Clarke doesn’t say anything, just continues to hug herself.
Bellamy bites his lip a moment before making a decision. “I’m sorry,” he says softly. “About last night. After I got Jasper to bed, I just-” He can’t think of an excuse. “I just wasn’t in a party mood.”
“You could have just said that yesterday.”
“I know. I really am sorry. I’ll make it up to you,” he tells her as they arrive in Engineering, getting a smile from Clarke that sets butterflies loose in his stomach just like always. He’s surprised at the relief the feeling brings—maybe the bitterness has finally passed.
The space in front of Raven’s monitors is filled with people. Raven sits on her stool, tapping at one keyboard or another. Kane and Abby are pointing at the screens and whispering to each other while Jackson and a group of nurses watch.
The screens show junction 17-C. Inside, the bodies look in less than stellar condition while outside a group of people in radiation suits are getting ready to go in with gurneys.
“I thought it was safe to go in?” Bellamy asks. “Why the suits?”
“It’s just a precaution,” says Raven. “Until my crews have done a thorough assessment of any damage. The monitors all say the air is safe, though.”
Bellamy frowns but doesn’t say anything else as they watch each body carefully lifted to a bed and covered with a sheet. One of the suited figures gives a thumbs up to the camera as the last body is removed. Abby, Jackson, and the nurses head to Medbay to do the autopsies, but Kane stops Clarke before she can follow.
“I’m going to need you to coordinate moving people back to the other side of the station. We have a lot of anxious people in the halls that just want to go home. Or what passes for home now. Get with Raven and figure out which sections will be opening and figure out the order people will be moved.”
Clarke nods. “Of course.”
He changes his attention to Bellamy. “Any news on your lead?”
Bellamy shakes his head. “He insists he repaired the door on his own because people complained it kept sticking.”
“Well either he did a crap job,” says Raven without looking away from her screens, “or there was more sabotage because we had to pry the doors open to get inside. They were completely jammed. It’s going to take a bit to fix them.”
“Great.”
“Any other leads.”
“Nothing concrete,” he says with a sigh.
Kane squeezes his shoulder. “You’re doing a good job, Bellamy. I know you’ll find the culprits.”
Before or after more people die?
“Get with Clarke on this move—I want the Guard helping organize and move everyone in an orderly fashion.”
Kane leaves just as Clarke comes over to his side with a tablet full of information from Raven. She looks tired.
“Breakfast?” Bellamy suggests, hoping to ease the tension between them.
“I have to help my mom with the autopsies.”
Bellamy’s shoulders slump in defeat as they head out of Engineering. He’s already shifting gears for the day, his thoughts wandering back to the murder investigation.
Clarke suddenly takes his hand, squeezing his fingers. He squeezes back, a tingle shooting up his arm.
“We’ll talk more later,” she tells him. “I’ll get the preliminary moving schedule figured out, and then, we’ll go over it together.”
“So dinner instead?”
A small smile reaches her tired eyes. “It’s a date.”
Before he can reconsider, he leans down and kisses the corner of her mouth. He’s thrilled at the swell in his chest and flutter in his stomach. Not all hope is lost then.
He watches until Clarke disappears around a corner before heading back to his office to get his tablet.