Chapter 1

"Stop." Octavia sighed. "Enough already. She's not coming back, Bell. You and I both know that."

Shifting his weight, he kept his eyes trained on the forest before him, scanning the woods horizontally. "Believe it or not, O, I have a job to do. And that job just so happens to include keeping watch." He said gruffly.

Having lived in the same room as him for mostly her whole life gave Octavia the advantage of knowing when her older brother was lying. "Yeah, keep telling yourself that." She said softly, before handing him a cup of hot tea and leaving.

Sipping the tea carefully, he thought about her. He wondered if she was even still alive, it had been months after all. Gripping the mug tighter, he remembered how she had left with only the clothes on her back. If she was alive, there was no way she would survive the winter alone. Come back, Clarke, before you die out there.

"Bellamy." A sharp, familiar voice demanded his attention. He took one last sweep over the forest before looking back at the beautiful, tough woman behind him.

"Echo."

"You are going to freeze." She stated matter-of-factly, her accent painting every word. He liked the way she spoke, the blunt sincerity in her speech was refreshing. Her cheeks were pink, yet she only wore a simple fur jacket. Whenever Bellamy complained about the cold, she slapped his arm teasingly and told him that he had no idea what cold was. Echo would know, after all, having spent her childhood surrounded by ice.

"Come inside." Echo commanded. Bellamy followed her back into the camp, his hand entwined with hers but his mind haunted with a memory he wished he could forget.

Please come inside. It hadn't been enough. He hadn't been enough.

He was enough for Echo, though, and she was enough for him.

Clarke was freezing. Crying out in frustration, she abandoned the kindling. All of the wood was damp, and creating a fire was nearly impossible with numb fingers and blurred vision. Tears of frustration tickled her frozen cheeks.

She needed to go back.

It didn't matter if she wanted to or not anymore. Clarke had no supplies, no coat, and no food. It was a matter of life and death. She had survived the impossible, and if she was going to die it wasn't going to be because of a little snow and starvation. Maybe it would be better if I did die out here, she thought, I'm a monster. Her thoughts flew back to Bellamy, remembering how he had called himself a monster once too. Maybe in the beginning, he was one, but Clarke had grown to understand why he had done the things he had done. She knew that Bellamy understood why she had done the things she had done, too.

I have to save them.

She felt the all-too familiar feeling of her throat closing up. Clarke forced herself to look up, into the sun, at the trees, at the clouds, anything to distract her from the haunting images of Maya, Dante, and the hundreds of burned corpses in between.

"I can't go back." She said out loud, voice cracking. "I can't face them."

A stubborn, clinical voice inside her replied, "You have to. Or you'll die. Do you want to lose your toes? Didn't think so. Start moving Clarke."

Camp Jaha was a two week journey from her current location. If she was lucky, she'd make it to the Camp before the snow got worse. At first, it melted by the time the sun rose. Lately, however, the snow was more inclined to stubbornly stick to the ground, which was not a good sign. And so, Clarke did what she always did. She got up, brushed herself off, and started moving.

Bellamy lay awake, playing with Echo's hair as she lay on his chest, sound asleep. He smiled to himself. She was fierce as hell when she was awake, but asleep, she was calm, soft, and quite frankly, a serene kind of beautiful. Echo looked at peace, and he thought about how lucky he was to be able to see a side of her no one else did.

After Mount Weather, Echo had accompanied them back to Camp Jaha. Her loyalties were not to Commander Lexa, and Abby had promised to give medical care to anyone who had helped the Sky People, grounders included. Echo had convinced a number of grounders to sign an alliance with the Sky People, in exchange for medical care and shelter for the time being. Abby had taken the time to teach Echo, and Echo had spent many weeks caring for the grounders that had stayed behind.

Bellamy had known Echo from their brief meeting in Mount Weather, but hardly spoke to her when she had come back with them. For the first few weeks, all Bellamy could think about was her, the girl who dropped a mountain of responsibility on his shoulders, kissed him on the cheek, and never looked back. However, after a hunting trip accident brought Bellamy to the medical bay, Echo tended to his wounds, first physical, and then slowly, she tended to his emotional ones as well. They opened up to each other, two people from drastically different backgrounds, but both stubborn, hardheaded, and passionate about protecting those they loved. Both of them were in positions to influence their people significantly, a burden they had often shared.

Not to mention Echo owed Bellamy her life. He had promised to come back for her, to save her, and he did. But Bellamy also owed Echo his life. She had saved him, even if she didn't know it. He pressed a kiss to her forehead before a familiar bitterness seeped into his heart. Clarke had left him to deal with the guilt of murdering hundreds of people, alone. How could she not have realized that he was in as much pain as she was? That he would never forget that he had executed men, women, and children. That he needed her to get through the guilt?

At least he had Octavia and Echo, who constantly reminded him that he did what he did to save their lives. Looking at them, he could slay his demons alone for the time being.

What I did—

What WE did.

Bellamy ignored the aching in his heart, pulling Echo closer to him, hoping she could remedy it.

"Bellamy?" She asked sleepily.

"I just—I need you." He kissed her exposed neck, and her surprised laughter vibrated through the exposed skin. Pulling his chin up, her lips met his and Bellamy replaced all thoughts of the blonde haired girl from his past with thoughts of the brown haired girl in his bed.