Chapter 42

~~~~~~~~unedited~~~~~~~~

Liam

Liam jolts, feeling the help of someone prop his body a certain way. The warm metallic taste of blood stains the tastebuds on his tongue as he peers over the edge of the hammock at the small puddle under him.

A comforting pat on his shoulder has Liam glancing at the person, and catches a glimpse of Dawson. "How you doing, cowboy?"

"Worse than you," Liam gets out weakly, and is down on his back again.

Dawson chuckles and slightly cocks his head to the side, "That's obvious."

"Well, you asked..."

Dawson re-dampens the fabric Addison tore from Liam's shirt in the bowl beside him, and defends, "I was being nice."

Liam responds with a breath of air that was meant to be a chuckle. Dawson begins to wipe the fresh blood off his chin, "What are you doing in here? Where's Addison?"

The hoarseness of his voice had Dawson wanting to protest, but he didn't, and answers nonetheless. "I am a fellow sick brother, and as for Addison..." he trails off with a small sigh, removing the rag from Liam's face, and locks eyes with him. "She's resting."

"What?" Liam tries to get up, but Dawson easily forces him back down.

"Don't worry. Girl's got nine lives, remember?" Liam wasn't taking no for an answer and tries to get up again, Dawson pushing him more roughly back in the hammock this time. "Liam," he warns, "Octavia's got her. You need to worry about yourself."

You need to worry about yourself, Liam internally repeats like a broken record. It was hard hearing those words when it came to Addison. Worrying about her is all he's ever known. There is no such thing as 'worry about yourself' when it comes to Liam—he's the definition of selfless, and Dawson knows that as well as Addison from their many hangouts in between camp duties.

"I mean it, Liam." Dawson's demand has Liam frowning and relaxing his muscles in defeat. "Rest." Against his own wishes, Liam listens, and drifts into a dreamless sleep.

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Addison

"This is boring," Addison says hoarsely, staring at the ceiling that's the floor to the middle level.

"I'll get you some more water," Octavia says before she leaves Addison's bedside.

"So, so boring..." she mutters under her breath that's followed by dry coughs when her throat tickles.

She covers her mouth with a hand and retracts it, sighing when she sees blood spots coating her palm. Octavia is by her side in a matter of seconds, helping her sit up to drink the clear liquid.

Once Addison gets her share, she leans back into Octavia's hand, signalling she's finished. "Thanks," she situates herself again.

Sweat had begun to break her continuing pale face that had Octavia's check ups becoming a lot more frequent. In a matter of seconds, her body's jolting forward and blood is splattering once again.

Octavia gathers her hair with one hand while the other rubs her back. Addison groans, leaning more on her elbows since the strength in her arms weakened. "This is worse than food poisoning," her voice shakes and her eyes snap shut, lips pressing together as she tries to contain the stirring in her stomach.

"You just need rest," is all Octavia says, her hand that rubbed Addison's back stopping to tuck her wild brown strands behind her ears.

"I need this to be over and done with already," Addison whispers back and lays back down. "If it's gonna kill me, it needs to be done with already."

"It's not gonna kill you."

Addison takes a moment to respond, the burst of life she had already beginning to fade away. Tell that to the other guys. "You don't know that," is what she chooses to respond with instead.

"Yes. I do," Octavia responds in determination.

The corner of Addison's lips curl, "Are we getting married, babe?"

The sound of Octavia's soft chuckle is music to Addison's ears as she's brought back to life for a brief second, her eyes slitting open enough to see her. "You never fail to joke at times like these," Octavia removes a strand of hair from the brunette's forehead as a playful smirk forms on her lips, "Babe."

Addison's lazy smile widens that soon gets cut off by a familiar voice retching. "Liam..." she breathes out, and thinks she's moving when in reality, her body only moves a centimetre at most. And slow. Her eyelids fall closed, despite the internal protests from the voice in the back of her head.

"He's okay." Octavia reassures gently, "Dawson offered to take care of him. He's been doing better," she continued, knowing full well Addison would ask the question she had just answered.

Addison doesn't respond and hardly moves. The stirring in her stomach subsides long enough for her to drift into a dreamless sleep of nothing for a short while.

Her eyes open, the sun —which had started peaking over the horizon an hour ago— shines its morning rays into the dropship. Guess the bomb worked. She glances around the dropship, not once finding Octavia, Bellamy or Clarke, but she does still find Dawson by Liam. She smiles at them before she goes back to looking for Octavia, her brother and Clarke.

Less people were in the dropship, and commotion was heard outside. It was almost like the virus never came.

Addison sits up, using her arms to find them no longer shaking and her stomach no longer having the urge to purge every second. She smiles in relief and brings her legs over the side of the hammock, still feeling light headed, but her eye sight is longer covered in black blotches like before.

She slips out of the hammock, still keeping a strong grip on it to steady herself. "How are you feeling?"

Addison looks up at Murphy, eyes slitting, "I feel like shit, Murphy. What kind of a question was that?" her accent is stronger than it had been, and that brings a barely noticeable smile to Murphy's lips.

"Alright, well...are you feeling any better? Because you sound great," he teases.

"I must be feeling better, because I want to slap you so bad right now."

Murphy chuckles, "That's more like it." He straightens his posture and folds his arms across his chest, shifting his eyes in a random direction. "Octavia, your girlfriend's awake." His call is louder.

Addison mentally rolls her eyes at him, but likes the way his words sound. Octavia's girlfriend.

Quick footsteps have Addison snapping out of her thoughts, and a smile tugs at her lips. "Addison," Octavia calls under her breath with a wide smile.

"Hey, Blake." Addison greets with a smile of her own.

Octavia's arms wrap around the brunette's neck, and Addison's go around Octavia's torso. "Told you you weren't gonna die."

Addison chuckles, laying her cheek on Octavia's shoulder to look across the dropship. "How's Liam doing?"

"Good," Octavia pulls back, as does Addison, and their eyes lock. "You have Dawson to thank. He wouldn't leave his side."

Addison eyes the two suspiciously, then shrugs with a small hum. She shifts her eyes to Octavia again and smiles smally at the look she's getting from Octavia. "What?"

Octavia's smile widens, and she averts her eyes down while shaking her head. "Nothing," the smile was still very much evident in her voice that had Addison grinning like fool, her own assumptions being made.

"Whatever you say, babe."

Octavia grins, too, "Come on..." she starts for the exit, back facing it as she begins to drag Addison by her hands, "They'll be back any minute."

Addison obediently follows after her, earning a smile from Clarke when the two make eye contact. Addison returns it, and continues to follow Octavia to an empty spot, patiently waiting for the arrival of whoever blew the bridge up.

She was briefly filled in by Octavia while waiting on the small group of four. Addison then tugs Octavia's hand, getting her attention with a small hum.

"Why was staying not an option?" she asks, remembering their talk the previous day, just before Addison had gotten severely sick.

"I said to ask me again when this is over," Octavia responds almost nervously, but Addison doesn't mention it. She looked away and had a hard time making eye contact, unlike their previous encounter in the dropship.

Addison shrugs with an airy laugh, "It is over."

"There are still a few people sick."

"You are so stubborn." Addison sighs, "I think I'd have a better chance at winning an argument with the dropship."

She feels eyes on her and turns her head, finding Octavia's unamused expression very amusing.

"It's true! I bet you Bellamy would vouch for me." Octavia never once changed her expression. Addison nudges her teasingly, a playful grin forming, "You love me, Blake. Admit it."

"I love you," Octavia didn't hesitate.

Did she mean it literally? Jokingly? Did she think I was joking? However she meant it, Addison still grinned from ear to ear, the entirety of her body flaring at the confession.

"There! It's them! Open the gate!"

Harper's excited announcement has the entire population of camp applauding and cheering. Addison shyly looks away from Octavia and to her two friends that enter camp, bright smiles on their faces.

"Way to go, boys!" Addison yells at them, a wide smile on their faces when they look at each other.

Jasper and Monty elbow each other and continue their walk through the applauding crowd.

Finn enters with a sickly Raven that has Addison's face dropping. She untangles her hand from Octavia's, only to have it re-clasped, "Clarke'll take care of her." Addison snaps her head to Octavia, "You're still not a hundred percent. Wait until later."

Addison shifts her eyes to Raven in worry, watching Finn lead her up the dropship ramp with Clarke on their heels.

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Night came painfully slow with Addison constantly looking up at the sky until the moon started shining. She looks up from the campfire she and Octavia are sitting at, listening to the other delinquents tell stories of their time on the Ark.

"Are you going?" Octavia asks, soft laughter erupting from the others.

Addison averts her eyes, continuing to reload the bullets back into the 9mm clip she had taken out to make the time pass. "Yeah."

"What's so special about her anyways?" Octavia asks in distaste that Addison didn't pick up on.

"She's just a friend—" Addison snaps the clip back into the gun with a click and pulls the action back, "—if that's what you're asking," the safety is flicked on, and she glances at Octavia.

She merely nods, turning her attention back to the fire and the soft chatter of the delinquents they were hanging out with.

Addison takes that as her leave and stands up, slipping the pistol in the waistband of her pants, and zips her jacket up. "I'll be back," she tells the others —who nod— and then looks at Octavia, "Don't leave."

Addison then walks to the dropship and catches sight of Liam and Dawson exiting the dropship. She hangs back and waits until they're further away, not in the mood for talking to either one of them, but smiles as they remain oblivious to her standing near.

She swipes the tarp covering, her boots thudding quietly against the metal floor. "How is she?"

Clarke nods, keeping her eyes glued to Raven, "She's getting better." Then she looks up at meets Addison's eyes, who are on Raven's pale and sleeping face.

"That's good," she responds quietly and stops beside Clarke. "What are we gonna do about the Grounders?"

Clarke sighs, shrugging smally, "I don't know yet. Bellamy and I will have a plan tomorrow."

Addison raises a brow, glancing at her, "You and big brother Blake?"

Clarke releases a breath of air, "No, Addison."

Addison can hear the smile in her voice that has her lips forming a smirk, "Whatever you say, Griffin."

Clarke chuckles, and their eyes meet, "You and little sister Blake?" she mocks.

Addison narrows her eyes, "No, Clarke."

"Whatever you say, Anderson."

"Ha-ha-ha...I'm laughing so hard," Addison states dryly, folding her arms across her chest that has Clarke chuckling quietly.

"How is she?" Finn's voice breaks their banter, and their expression change.

"She's getting stronger," Clarke responds, while Addison nods at him, and looks down at Raven.

She stirs and slowly opens her exhausted brown eyes, voice rasping out, "Hey."

Addison smiles, "Hey, Reyes."

Raven smiles and looks behind her at Finn, greeting him, too. "Hey," he greets back and comes to where Clarke was just standing.

Addison glances between them and slowly backs away from Raven, leaving the couple alone. She joins Clarke on the ramp outside and stands next to her for a while, surveying camp.

"I can't wait until this war with the Grounders is over. Maybe then, we'll finally live the dream everyone's talked about for generations," Addison mutters sadly.

Clarke sighs heavily, yet sadly, "Me, too..."

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