Chapter 45

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

Liam

His nerves rise each time he thinks back to he and Raven's conversation days ago. It wasn't bad... or was it?

"Hey." Liam jumps, his eyes snapping over to Dawson. "You good?"

"Y-Yeah, yeah . . ." he muttered.

Dawson chuckles at Liam's weird behaviour, but doesn't question it. "Okay," he goes back to chatting with the other delinquents around the campfire.

Liam was going to talk to Addison, but she was gone. Along with Raven, Bellamy, Octavia and Monty who went to go find Clarke, Myles and Finn. He wanted nothing more than to talk to Addison or Raven, but he couldn't, and now he's stuck in his thoughts until they came back.

Liam looks across the fire; her blonde hair's done in a half down braided style, eyes squinting when she rocks her head back at something one of her friends had said. His mind was made up.

He springs from his spot by Dawson and ignores his questioning, walking straight over to the girl and her friends. "Callie, right?"

The girl, Callie, looks up at Liam with a shy smile and nods. "And you're Liam," she doesn't miss a beat.

"Yeah," Liam breathed out. "I hope I'm not interrupting you guys," he flickers his eyes to her small group of friends. On her right sits a boy that looks to be a year or two younger than Callie, his curly brown hair in a mess on top of his head. On Callie's left stands a girl that reminds Liam of someone from his and Addison's past on the Ark.

The girl's long auburn hair appears more red in the glow of the fire's flames. She speaks softly and smiles just as softly at Callie, but her words never reached Liam. He snaps his eyes away from her, not wanting to go down memory lane at the moment, and meets Callie's blue eyes.

"Uh, do you maybe wanna, uh . . ." he scratches the back of his nervously. It's not that he's nervous around her; he does think she is really pretty, but that's not what's stumping him. How do you causally bring up a 'good time' to someone in front of their friends?

Luckily for Liam, Callie seemed to get where he was going, and nods. "Sure. Let's go for a walk," she bids her friends a soft and kind 'see you later'.

Callie bounces ahead of him and grabs ahold of his hand, dragging him away from the campfire. Liam can feels eyes on him the further he gets, but he doesn't take the time to look at who they belong to.

Once they were out of earshot from any known prying ears, Callie speaks, "What's the occasion?"

Liam snaps his eyes to her, not fully hearing her nor understanding, "What?"

Callie chuckles and releases his hand, letting it drop back down to his side, "The last time you took a girl it was to get your mind off yours and Addison's fight. What's wrong this time?"

Liam has to admit... she's not stupid. It was after Dawson had kissed Addison that Octavia saw. Addison didn't talk to him for days and she walked in on him and a girl, similar in hair colour to Callie. The girl's name was Andrea, she and him had been buddies for those five days Addison pushed him.

"It's not her again, is it?" there was a small laugh in Callie's voice.

Liam couldn't help but softly laugh along, "No. No, it's not. We're good."

He and Callie continue down the worn path that leads to the tents. "Is it that hot mechanic, Raven? You two have been awfully close," she teased, like she and Liam were old friends.

Liam shakes his head, cringing with scrunched face, "Oh, no, no . . ." Callie raised an unconvinced dark blonde brow, "her and I . . . no. Okay, maybe at first I liked her, but not anymore. That'd be weird," he muttered, his mind flashing back to the night Raven revealed a secret the Ark doesn't even know.

"Well, blondes seem to be your go-to." Callie said, bringing Liam out of his thoughts. His brows knit in confusion, not realizing they'd already made it to his tent.

He soon recovers with an awkward laugh that Callie brushes off, entering his tent. Liam follows, feeling the pressure of Callie's lips on his, then his jacket being slid off.

Addison

The trip back to camp was an adrenaline rush, and not in a good way. The group of five were quick to make a stretcher for Myles and wasted no time in bringing him back to camp.

Once Myles was settled in the dropship, Jasper retreated to his gunpowder and Raven to her safe-space. Octavia wandered off too god knows where to do god knows what, while Bellamy stayed in the dropship with Myles.

Addison sits on the ramp of the dropship, fiddling around with her pistol that Raven had silently gave back before she went to her tent to likely make more bullets. Octavia had taken off with her rifle, but she wasn't concerned about it. Addison would rather her rifle be in Octavia's hands than her own for protection, since she has idea where Octavia had gone.

Addison hums softly. She surveys camp and lets her mind wonder to Clarke, Finn and Monty. She's worried and slightly scared, but she tries not to think about the 'what ifs'. Her mind then wonders to how Jasper's dealing with Monty's strange and silent disappearing.

All thoughts — and hums— cease. Her body turns ridged and stiff, frozen when her eyes lock onto someone. Addison knows —she thought she knew— every delinquent on the ground. She knows it's not her, but the familiar shade of auburn hair in the fire's light tells her brain otherwise.

The way her hair flicks to the side in messy waves when she glances at her male friend beside her as they walk to the tents. Addison was frozen and too lost in her mind to notice Jasper entering the dropship.

The heavy thud of boots coming down the ramp snaps her out of her daze. She glances over her shoulder and meets Bellamy's eyes.

"How's Myles doing?" she asked, clearing her throat to seem more normal.

Bellamy pays no mind, "Alive."

Addison nods, then gets to her feet, tucking the pistol in her waistband while she does so. "Where are you headed?"

"Water for Myles," he answered.

"I'll come with you."

Bellamy nods, and the two walk away from the dropship. "Do you think it was right of me to leave them out there?" he suddenly asked, a certain quietness and uncertainty laced in his voice.

Addison frowns. Did he make the right call? Would Clarke or Finn or Monty leave her to die if she was the one missing? "For Myles sake . . ." she sighs, "yes," is all she could muster.

The radio attached to Bellamy's pants cracks. Addison furrows her brows as she glances at him.

"You know what'll happen to me if you tell Bellamy."

Murphy's strained and defeated voice comes through. Bellamy is quick to snap the radio from his pants and press a button on the side, "Tell Bellamy what?" there's a pause that's filled with Murphy's heavy breathing that had Addison averting her eyes to the radio as she and Bellamy trek back to the dropship.

"Give me the radio, Jasper."

Addison quickly shifts her eyes to Bellamy. She slowly backs towards the dropship. The radio shifts around, and Jasper's panicked voice comes through.

"Murphy has a gun. He killed Myles!"

The radio cuts out. Addison hops into a sprint for the dropship. "Murphy, what the hell are you doing?" Bellamy's question barely registers.

Addison pumps her legs to move faster when the creaking of the dropship ramp starting to shut reaches her ears, and Bellamy's attempted shouts for her to get back going ignored. "Jasper!" she yelled, eyes wide.

Just before the large door seals shut, she slips in. With a grunt, Addison lands on her side and Bellamy's shouts muffle on the otherside, only being able to faintly hear him.

She sits up on her hands and looks at the trembling boy, ignoring her sore gut that got punched by the grip of her pistol, "Jasper . . ."

Jasper's eyes are wide and fearful. Murphy points the barrel of the rifle at him, his index ready to send a bullet. Addison breathed heavily and her heart thumps fearfully; fear of Murphy's next move.

She catches the satisfied glint in Murphy's cold brown eyes when he glances at her over his shoulder.

"Murphy! Open the damn door!"

His lips spread into his infamous smirk. Murphy presses his finger over the button of the radio, "You try to be a hero, Jasper and Addison die!" the entire threat, Murphy held Addison's eyes, and she held his.

She slowly gets to her feet, hands raised at her sides when Murphy aims the rifle at her. Addison flickers her eyes to Myles, who lays still not far from her. She moves her eyes back to Murphy. Not a single ounce of remorse or guilt fills his dark eyes.

"What the hell is wrong with you," she demanded, voice as cold as the empty black pit the Ark floats around in, "you didn't have to kill him."

"He tied the rope that hung me. That hung you," he seethed. The barrel of the rifle lowers to her shoulders instead of her head, "If that virus didn't kill Connor, I would have."

"I liked you better when I was saving your ass on the Ark. At least then you weren't the world's biggest asshole."

Murphy clenches his jaw. He marches forward and swings the butt of his rifle into the side of Addison's face. She hisses and stumbles, holding her left cheek that stings.

Addison laughs lowly, amused. "Does that make you feel better, huh?" she challenged, and straightens her posture. She removes her hand from her cheek and feels a trickle of blood slide down her cheek.

Murphy swings it at her again. Addison sluggishly dodges, a smirk etched on her marked face.

"Come on, John . . ." she knows it's not smart of her to taunt him like she is, especially when he has the upper hand with a gun aimed at some part of her body. She itches to pull her 9mm, but refrains. A bullet would be in her before she could lift her shirt.

"Don't call me that," his voice wavered slightly.

For a brief moment, Addison felt sorry for him, but that quickly wore off when she glanced at Jasper. The goofy boy she met three weeks ago is gone and replaced by a teary eyed, terrified version of himself Addison hates seeing.

"As long as you don't try anything, he'll be fine," the irritable John Murphy is back. Addison moves her gaze to him.

Murphy motions with the rifle for her to get by Jasper. Cautiously, she steps towards Jasper. "Don't worry, Jasper," she offers him a reassuring smile that nearly fails to reach her eyes, "I won't let him hurt you."

Jasper's bottom lip trembles when he bounces his eyes to Murphy, then Addison, then back to Murphy. Addison can see how scared he is of what's next, and deep down, so she, but she want Murphy to get the satisfaction.

Once Addison is by Jasper, Murphy gags him with a piece of fabric, tying it in his mouth and around his head.

Murphy doesn't so much as blink when she moves to eye him suspiciously, her back to Jasper, "Why not gag me too?"

He smirks, "I want you to do something so I can kill him," her blood runs cold, and her jaw clenches. "You'll crack. You always do," he sniffles and wipes the tip of his nose with his sleeve.

Addison glares, wanting nothing more than to punch that slimy smirk off his lips.

Murphy uses an index finger to make a spin motion with, "Turn around and put your hands up."

With a small annoyed, mostly defeated sigh, Addison unwillingly complies. She faces Jasper again and holds his eyes, cheek throbbing from Murphy's successful smack with his gun, but she doesn't care. Murphy's footsteps quickly approach, his hands roughly tugging her arms down behind her back. Addison hisses when he ties them together and pulls until the rope is practically a part of her skin. She can already feel her wrists rubbing raw.

"Turn around." Addison reluctantly does, and stares blankly up at him. He steps forward and lifts her shirt up with a satisfied smirk. While ripping her pistol from its place in her waistband, he says, "I can see why that wild sister of Bellamy's is screwing you."

Addison clenches her jaw. Be stupid or no? Risk a bullet or let your anger show? Murphy backs away before she has time to choose. He takes a seat across the dropship, keeping his gun trained on Addison and his eye on Jasper.

No questions asked, she would've chose stupid and risk a bullet. Did she care? No. But the more her mind weighed the options after Murphy chose for her, she begun to care again. Murphy wasn't one to bluff about anything, especially killing, come to find out.

"So, tell me, Addison . . ." Murphy leans back, bouncing a leg in interest, "did you forget about, oh, what was her name . . ." the smirking in his voice never once faded, his lips curling back up in a matching smirk.

Addison knows full well he knows exactly who he's talking about.

He chuckles, "Come on, Anderson. We're friends, aren't we?"

"You tied my hands behind my back and have me at gunpoint." She deadpanned, eyes narrowed as she fights the urge of wanting to wipe the blood off her cheek away, "some friend you are."

"You had this," Murphy shows her her own pistol.

Now Addison is plan annoyed. She rolls her eyes, the tickling of the blood trail going ignored now, "Murphy, I always have it on me. How stupid are you?"

"Stupid enough to hold a Blake's girlfriend at gunpoint."

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Thank you all for being so patient on this update! My life decided to get super busy, but it's settled down now so I should be back to updating normally. On that note, I'm thinking about starting an images book for Octavia. Thoughts? I feel like she doesn't have enough love :(