Chapter 1

They were back at the bunker. Clarke and Madi had been given shelter in one of the empty living quarters. Madi was curled up next to Clarke, fast asleep. The previous few nights were the only ones they had ever spent apart from each other and Clarke had felt as if a part of her was missing. Now she was back, safe right beside her. Clarke smiled down at the girl as she pulled some hair from her face. She'd never known she could feel such overwhelming love for someone. She'd always understood that everything Bellamy had ever done had been to protect his sister. But it wasn't until Madi had come along that she'd really understood. That she got it. Because there wasn't a thing in the world that she wouldn't do for this girl who'd become ingrained in her heart.

Clarke sighed and slid the blanket up over Madi's shoulders. She got up from the bunk and crossed the few feet to the other side of the quarters to her own bunk. She threw off her jacket, pulled the covers back and slipped her feet underneath. She stared up at the dark ceiling, wondering not for the first time, what it had been like to be trapped here for 6 years. Under the floor. That was how Octavia had lived almost her entire life. Hidden away, kept secret from everyone else. She'd had a taste at true freedom just to have had it ripped away again. To be thrown back into the darkness. She'd survived hiding on the Ark due to fear. But down here, she'd thrived due to loyalty and leadership. What would have crushed anyone else, had only made her stronger. But it had also done something else to Octavia. Something Clarke couldn't quite define.

Clarke finally closed her eyes and tried to sleep. Instead of falling into that peaceful slumber she so wished for, flashes of the past few days shot across her closed eyelids. The shadow of an angel materializing from the darkness and the sound of a voice she'd almost forgotten. Those eyes that had haunted her dreams for 6 years meeting hers and conveying so much with just 2 words. She is. The sound of his feet pounding on the ground as he ran to her. His warm hands on her body as he helped her up and hugged her tightly. Hearing that all her friends had made it. The heart and the head. But most of all, the image that refused to leave her head. The one that replayed over and over again. Echo running into Bellamy's arms. Kissing him.

Clarke let out an exasperated breath and turned to face the wall. Why wouldn't that image leave her alone? Why did she keep dwelling on it? Of all the things that had happened over the past few days, why was it that one thing that she couldn't get off her mind? Why couldn't she focus on the happiness she had felt when she'd first seen Bellamy? Or at meeting up with old friends? After 6 years with only Madi at her side, she should be overjoyed to have everyone back. Of course she was happy but there was also something else. Some other emotion she couldn't really figure out. Something she thought she'd felt before but couldn't quite remember when.

She tossed and turned for another hour before finally sitting up. She shot a glance at Madi sound asleep and got up from the bed. She opened the door as quietly as she could and slipped outside. She navigated the hallways until she reached the opening they had dug out as an easy entry to the bunker. She stepped outside, taking in the smell of rubble, dust and campfires spread throughout the city. She missed the smell of fresh air from Shallow Valley. Her home. This wasn't how she had imagined things would turn out. The prisoner ship had changed everything. She'd thought about this so many times but this scenario had never played out in her mind. She never thought they would survive the end of the world just to start another war. Would it ever stop?

Clarke headed out into the darkness, not sure what she planned on doing but knowing that laying in that bunk was not going to bring her any sleep this night. She wandered aimlessly for a few minutes until she saw a campfire with someone sitting by it. She instantly recognized the dark curly hair and broad shoulders. She smiled as that fact hit her again. That Bellamy was here. Back on the ground where he belonged. Home. She took a few tentative steps towards him, not completely sure if she should approach him. He'd had a very difficult argument with Octavia earlier when Echo had arrived. Octavia had wanted to kill her on sight but Bellamy had managed to convince Octavia to put her hatred aside for the moment. That they had a bigger fight ahead of them than this personal revenge.

Clarke took another step before she realized that Bellamy was not alone. Someone was sitting on the ground in front of him. Not someone. Echo. Her hands were entwined with Bellamy's. Clarke stopped suddenly, hidden in the shadows. She watched them for a moment as Echo took one of her hands and placed it on Bellamy's cheek. Clarke's breath caught in her throat and her vision suddenly blurred. She blinked several times, shocked to feel tears welling in her eyes. She tore her eyes away from them but not before seeing Echo lean in to kiss Bellamy. Clarke turned away and moved off quickly in the opposite direction. Her breath came out in ragged spurts as a tear slid down her cheeks.

She walked for several minutes until she was completely in the dark, nothing to be seen but stars. She sat by a broken down wall and rested her back against it. She wiped furiously at her eyes. Her words and actions could always persuade people of things she didn't really fully believe in herself but her eyes? Her eyes always gave her away. Damn traitors. What was wrong with her? Why was she crying? Oh she'd cried many times in the days after Praimfaya. She'd cried for everything she had lost. She'd cried for all the unknowns. She'd cried for the what-ifs. But this? What was this for?

Her mind flashed to the night that she had killed Finn. To the blood on her hands after she had stabbed him. To the pain she had felt when she'd lost him. To the joy he had brought her those first few days on Earth. And to the heartbreak of seeing Raven running into his arms and kissing him. The complete shock that they were together and the sound of her heart ripping apart. She hadn't loved him but it had been a betrayal all the same. Just like tonight. Clarke shook her head. What? Where had that thought come from? Who would have betrayed her? Bellamy, came the silent answer. Clarke frowned, trying to make sense of her jumbled mind. Bellamy didn't betray me, she thought. Didn't he? Came the little voice in her head.

"No," Clarke said aloud, her voice shaky. But she couldn't help that nagging emotion that reared its head again. The one she couldn't pinpoint. Until that image of Raven and Finn in each other's arms popped back into her head and slowly transformed into the image of Bellamy and Echo kissing. And suddenly she recognized the emotion. She'd felt it back then, and she felt it again now. Jealousy