Chapter 10

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Addison grimaced at Jasper's pained moans. His head would rhythmically rock from side to side then face the top of the dropship, his brown eyes rolling shut. "I think death would be better than this," she muttered with a small sigh. "But hey, don't listen to me—I wouldn't listen to me. Clarke is gonna fix you."

She flickered her eyes to Clarke, the blonde looking down at her watch with a hand over Jasper's heart, "His pulse is 380."

"Shut that kid up!"

"Go back to sleep."

"Quiet!"

Each comment sent a surge of red hot anger through Addison's veins. She was more annoyed and irritated at the delinquents' insensitive comments, but no one else but herself needed to know that, especially the insensitive delinquents that yelled from the lower levels.

She glared at the opened hatch door before diverting her attention to Monty, her eyes softening at his sad dark brown eyes that ached for his best friend. He averted his attention back to the wristbands, ignoring the delinquents' comments.

"Don't listen to them. You're gonna make it through this, okay?" Clarke assured softly, rubbing the back of her hand along his head. "Promise."

"I told you Clarke's gonna fix you," Addison muttered to Jasper with a little smile. "Someone needs to be the ladies man on Earth."

"Can he just die already?"

The little smile was wiped off her face. She looked at the hatch with a blank expression, "That's it, I've had enough."

"Addison, don't—"

"Relax, Clarke," the brunette stood, "I'm not gonna paint anyone's face . . ." as she walked to the hatch, she threw in a little "yet" that made Clarke look at her with a defeated sigh —it made Addison chuckle a little. "It won't do 'em any good anyways." She knelt at the hatch and muttered, "Insensitive pricks."

"You do have a heart," Clarke said, blatantly.

"Don't tell anyone." Addison lowered her head shoulders through the hatch hole as another comment rang from below. She allowed her anger to control her words, "SHUT THE HELL UP AND SHOW SOME RESPECT! YOU COULD BE THE NEXT ONE SKEWERED!" her accent rang out. She waited a few moments for a snarky reply, maybe from Atom, Bellamy or Murphy, but there was none. She leaned back on her knees and looked at Clarke with a raised brow, "See? No harm done, worry wart."

Clarke brushed the nickname off and stood. "I'm gonna get clean water." She flickered her blue eyes between Monty and the hot-headed brunette, "Monty, keep an eye on him." She then walked to the hatch and met Addison's eyes, awaiting her decision.

"I'll keep an eye on Monty and Jasper and everyone else."

Clarke nodded and disappeared down the ladder. Soon after, footsteps hit the ladder. Addison scanned the room for a useable weapon and locked onto a metal pipe that laid abandoned on the floor. She picked it up, gripping it in her hands so hard her knuckles turned white. She raised it over her left-shoulder like a baseball bat when the top of their head starting to poke.

She pulled back a little more, about to swing, until the uninvited looked up and released an even, wavering scream of surprise. "AH-ah!"

Addison immediately lowered the pipe, "What the hell, Liam!" He finished the climb, Addison stepping back, pipe at her left-side. "I could've seriously hurt you."

"Sorry," he sheepishly responded, then looked at Goggles. "How's he doing?"

"He's hanging in there." She followed her best friend's gaze.

"Well, at least he's alive."

Addison lowered her voice, "For now." That made Liam whip his head to her, a surprised expression on his face. "What? I believe in Clarke's doctoring abilities, if she's anything like her mom, I do. But Jasper was speared in the chest right by his heart. His chances of survival aren't the greatest, Liam."

"I don't wanna believe that—I can't." Their eyes met. "Earth can't be like this: death."

"Maybe it is, Liam. And we just don't know it yet."

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"AAAHH!!"

Addison jolted awake, alarmed. With furrowed brows, she surveyed the level she was on and realization struck: Jasper.

He thrashed beneath Wells, Finn, Monty and Liam as they held him, his screams deafening the level. Clarke held a freshly-heated, orange blade in her hand. "Hold him still!" she yelled at the boys. "I need to cut away the infected flesh."

Addison stared, still planted on the floor from where she slept. The wounded boy rocked his head to the side that soulless, yet helplessly, looked into Addison's wide, wary eyes. A tear slid out of his eye, and his body went limp.

"Jasper?" she muttered, and came to his side. His chest slowly rose and fell, and Addison released a relieved sigh —he was just unconscious.

"Stop it!" Octavia hurried up the ladder. She rushed to his side beside Clarke, opposite of where Addison was, and looked at the blonde, "You're killing him."

"She's trying to save his life," Finn stated from Addison's left, who looked at the youngest Blake.

"She can't," Bellamy's voice sent a surge of irritated into Addison's veins that didn't take long to boil. Dawson had snuck into the level with Bellamy, his blue eyes searching the room.

Wells moved first. With a heavy sigh, he stood his ground in front of Bellamy, "Back off."

"We didn't drag him through miles of woods just to let him die," Clarke said to Bellamy, not once diverting her concentrated eyes from Jasper's wound.

"Kid's a goner. If you can't see that, you're deluded." Addison flickered her eyes to Liam, as a silent 'do you believe me now?'. "He's making people crazy."

Clarke's eyes hardened when she snapped her head up to him. "Sorry if Jasper's an inconvenience to you, but this isn't the Ark. Down here, every life matters."

Blake clenched his jaw, "Take a look at him. He's a lost cause."

Addison did as Bellamy said, Octavia continuing to wipe his sweat-coated forehead. The level was silent. If Liam was the one dying, she would fight like hell to save his life, but he wasn't .  .  . and that made Addison selfish to not want to waste time and what little resources they have on Jasper, a boy Addison didn't know until two days ago.

He was friendly and quirky, and though he was from the Ark, he was still as much a stranger as Earth was. Yet Addison was conflicted, deep down, and Clarke was onto something . . . down here where Grounders lurked in the trees to kill invaders that didn't know they were invading at the time, every life did matter.

Addison held her silence. She and Liam shared a glance as Clarke persuaded, "Octavia, I've spent my whole life watching my mother heal people. If I say there's hope, there's hope."

"This isn't about hope. It's about guts. You don't have the guts to make the hard choices. I do," Bellamy responded, in a hard tone.

All attention turned to Addison when bitterly said, "You think guts is what it takes to lead?" She could hear the eye-roll from Bellamy as he smirked, amused. "It's strategy, compassion. Those together strengthen a leader." Addison took in a deep breath when she stood, averting her brown eyes to a pale, sweaty Jasper, and muttered, "You'd think enough of us would've read some books or paid attention to the histories before the bombs in class to know that."

She was fed up with his egotistical ass. Wiping her palms on her thighs, she started toward the hatch, before her mouth and temper got the best. "You of all people don't have what it takes to lead people, Anderson," replied Bellamy. "Why should I listen to you? Why should any of us, listen to you?"

Addison lazily turned sideways, "I, of all people, know that. But I wasn't giving orders. I was giving advice." She continued for the hatch again, Liam warily watching the altercation, "Take it or leave it. That's how advice works."

But then she stopped, right at the hatch. She looked at Bellamy's dark brown eyes with a little scoff.

"What do you even know about guts? You think because you snuck onto the dropship with a gun means you have more guts than the ones that were forced? Having a gun doesn't automatically mean you make the choices. And if you think it does, you're no better than a tyrant. You know .  .  ." a smirk graced her lips, Bellamy's jaw tightening. "It makes a person wonder what you really did to get a guards' uniform and a gun while guardsmen turned a blind eye. It's not just because of Octavia."

Bellamy stepped forward, Octavia shooting up to put a hand on his shoulder to stop him. "Bel, don't."

"I know what you've done," Bellamy's voice carried. Addison's expression turned cold, and her body stiffened. Liam stepped toward Addison, aware she could snap at a moment's notice. "You're not a saint either, so stop acting like one."

"Guys, can we please just get back to—" Jasper's pained moans cut Liam off. Octavia worriedly fled back to his side.

Addison shot Jasper a quick glance before she descended the ladder, Clarke hollering at Liam to stay and help hold the injured delinquent down. Reluctantly, he obeyed Clarke.

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"Doctoring not your thing?" A voice interrupted Addison. She looked up at Dawson from the tent-making station, sitting beside it in the dirt.

"Bellamy's not my thing. Neither is sewing, but this is more tolerable than him."

Dawson shrugged, "Doesn't look like you're doing much sewing." He looked at the few delinquents that were once doing the same thing but now sitting around, talking and laughing.

"Yeah, well, we need materials for that. Harper went to get some," Addison said. Dawson sat beside her. "Doctoring isn't your thing either, I take it?"

"If you call wiping sweat off one person with three other people 'doctoring', then nope, not my thing." Dawson glanced at her, and with furrowed brows asked, "What did Bellamy mean by what he said?"

"Great conversation starter, Hale."

"I was just asking."

Addison blinked with an irritated sigh, Bellamy Blake's stupid voice echoing. "Can't see me any worse than Bellamy does—it's not like his opinion matters to me anyways, but hear it goes," she paused, licking her lips as she buried the emotions behind the memories, "When I was ten, my mother got sick. And by the time I was 13, she had gotten worse and couldn't work anymore. On the chancellor's orders, the doctors denied her pain meds, including my own father but he had to—he could've lost his job. So I took matters into my own hands."

"So what? You got caught stealing, like most of us here, including me."

"You're a lousy thief, but that's not what I was arrested for." Addison avoided his gaze, and her tone turned sharp, "The point is, I did something Brother Blake doesn't like, therefore I'm labeled 'the bad guy' around his sister. Don't bother prying the truth out of Liam." She finally met Dawson's gaze, and said in the same sharp tone, "You can go now."

He respected the demand and reluctantly stood, an almost scowling-Addison watching as he joined a small group by a fire. She said too much. A deep regret created a pit in her stomach, and she tightened her jaw—she regretted every stupid word.

"So you open-up to him and not me?"

Addison unclenched her jaw, lips parted in surprise to see a displeased-Octavia five-feet from her, and the brunette's hardened expression morphed into confusion. "You're not helping with Jasper?"

Octavia aggressively nudged Addison's leg with the toe of her boot. "What the hell, Addison!"

"Hey!" The persecuted delinquent stood. "What the hell, to you! What is your problem?" Her left-fist ached when she tightened her hand, but upon telling her brain it's Octavia and not an annoying idiot, she unclenched the fist. "You wanna know something about me, fine: I don't like to open-up to someone I genuinely like, or even talk about my arrest, which was a mistake. In fact, I hate it, but because I wanna scare them off, I'll mention it. If they know and decide to look at me different, who cares?—I didn't like them anyways, no harm done." Addison licked dried lips then said, "I don't care what Dawson thinks about me, so consider yourself very lucky, Octavia."

Octavia blinked with parted lips. She didn't respond—it was the longest five seconds Addison had ever endured. "What did you do that was so bad?"

This conversation drained all of the life out of Addison. "No more questions, Octavia. We're done talking about it."

"What if we went outside camp? Back to the butterfly field and talked? What would you say then?"

Addison licked her lips. "I would say another time, and no topics that involved my arrest, or me, preferably. I'd want to talk about you: ask how you lived under the floor for 15 years, what kept you sane all of those years, your favourite game as a kid." Octavia was the one to clench her jaw and avert her gaze. "See? Not so fun when it's about you, is it?"

Octavia scoffed in disbelief. "You're unbelievable."

"You came to me! How am I the bad guy? If you wanna know so bad, I'm sure your brother won't mind painting you a villainizing picture of me."

and marched back to the dropship.

"What was that about?" Harper asked as she approached with an armful of materials for tents.

Addison glanced at Harper as she approached with an armful of material for tents, "Did I say something wrong?"

"How should I know? I didn't hear what was said."

"I wished you did," Addison's frowned deepened when she looked back at Octavia, who was walking up the ramp of the dropship, "because I'm really confused." Clarke's blonde hair caught her eye. With a small sigh, Addison said, "I'm gonna see if Clarke's got a plan for Jasper. I'll be back as soon as I can."

Octavia smirks at her. In response, Addison rolls her eyes with a small laugh and stands up, "I'm going to find Clarke and see if she's figured out what that stuff is yet."

Addison shrugs and continues walking until her eyes find Clarke, who's sitting down on a hillside, inspecting what the Grounder's used on Jasper with Wells, Finn and Dawson. So that's where he went.

She walks up to them with her hands in her jacket pockets, "Have you figured out what that stuff is?"

"Wells says it's Seaweed." Clarke responds, standing up along with Finn.

Her brows furrow in confusion, "Seaweed? I thought that stuff only grew in the sea? Hence, the word 'sea' in the name."

Dawson chuckles softly in amusement as Wells sighs in annoyance, "Not necessarily."

"So..." Addison draws out, crossing her arms as she looking between Clarke and the boys, "When are we leaving?"