[ OPEN ] Hot Springs Episode!

[shri]

CHARACTERS: EVERYONE
WHERE: The Second Flight
WHEN: DAY :022
SUMMARY: The Sauna!
WARNINGS: Nekkid times.

[ A few hours after the murder, she hasn't blown the ship up, and here they are. Another knock knock on everyone's brain: ]

( For those of you that are interested - I have secured us a place at the Sauna. Free for us to be use without interruption from outsiders.

You are to be clean before you come in. )

[ Maybe you're here because she bullied you, maybe you want to soak - maybe you're the poor bastard that is standing guard at the door. Either way, welcome to the Suana, have fun. Or don't. ]

Comments

[deployed]

[ Bellamy's fingers don't lift from the raised mark on Murphy's skin. Grounders love their torture, Murphy says, and Bellamy's mind supplies a very immediate example: Raven tied to a pole, screaming as Indra slowly dragged a knife across her stomach.

When Murphy came back to them, he was so caked in mud and dried blood that it had been hard to tell exactly what damage had been done. Bellamy hadn't wanted to find out. He can see it now, faded but still visible. Even as he'd bowed to Clarke's logic and cast Murphy out, he'd still been sending him away to die. It was dumb luck that grounders had thought he'd been useful and sent him back, just like it was dumb luck he hadn't killed Bellamy in the dropship when he'd returned.

He reaches across Murphy to take his elbow and press his thumb over the scar. It's different. ]

A sea monster, [ Bellamy says dryly, because of course. Why not? ] I didn't know you went out on the water.

[ And clearly it hadn't gone well. But neither had Bellamy's trip out to Luna's rig. Their people didn't have much luck on the sea, apparently. ]

[wrackful]

[The memory of Raven comes through too clear. For a second it spins out, overlays with Pike tied to the bars in Polis' cells, Indra with the metal spike in her hand; with Raven's screams, echoing through Camp Jaha as he and Bellamy sat tied in the makeshift brig. Guilt curls heavy, rooted inextricably in those screams, in any memory of Raven. Murphy's mind flinches back, and he lets out a breath, hard, staring down at Bellamy's hand on his elbow for a long moment.]

Jaha's crazy quest for the City of Light.

[It's the first thing he can think of to say. To just tell the story, try to move away from what had spilled out of Bellamy's head.]

We thought we'd hit a dead end at the water, but there was this drone that flew off out over it, so we all climbed in this crappy wooden boat and rowed out. It got dark. We finally got sight of land, but something knocks the boat and Richards falls in. I tried to grab him, but this thing just... [He lifts his other hand, an open, loose gesture. Lets it fall back into the water.] Ate him. Whole. Almost took my arm with him, except Jaha pulled me back.

[A beat, and his mouth tugs grim, bitter, a sharper hatred stirring behind his words.]

But then he pushed Craig in, so I wasn't feeling grateful about it for long.

[deployed]

[ When Jaha had come back, it had been assumed the people with him had died. Now Bellamy knew a piece of the story, but he was too far from Arkadia for it to matter. His thumb run along the scars on Murphy's elbow as he contemplates that. The images don't shake loose from Murphy's mind but the impressions the recitation evokes rise like smoke. Bellamy's breath catches, but he doesn't linger over the sensations. ]

He cared enough to keep you alive.

[ For whatever reason. Bellamy didn't understand why Jaha did anything, but Clarke might have if she were here. ]

Good thing for me, isn't it? If you hadn't come along when you did, I don't think I'd have made it.

[ No one had needed to explain what he was being brought to the top of the tower for. Torture and death were the only explanations. And Murphy had saved him from it, then helped them save the world apparently. ]

[wrackful]

[The reaction comes immediate, spilling from his mind even if Murphy doesn't interrupt Bellamy to voice it: that Jaha can stick his care right up his ass, as far as he's concerned. All it had meant for him was seeing more people die, being trapped alone underground for three months, and having to deal directly with stopping the outward spreading consequences of Jaha's insanity.

But good thing for me, Bellamy calls it, frames it differently, and Murphy's stuck staring at him for a moment. He'd never considered it that way, himself as some central, necessary pin to what had happened. Bellamy puts it on his shoulders so readily, rubs his thumb over Murphy's skin, the two connecting like a wire plucked, humming. He's suddenly sharply aware of how close Bellamy is, how warm the water is, the rough of the calluses on Bellamy's hand where he's holding his elbow. His gaze drops to Bellamy's mouth, catches there so easily, and then--

He's smiling, incredulous, half a dry laugh in it.]

Come on, you and Clarke? [He lifts his elbow up out of Bellamy's grasp, lets his arm fall back in the water.] You would've figured something out.

[deployed]

[ Just like at the pool, Bellamy can feel Murphy noticing him. It knocks the breath out of him. It's the same sensation he'd had before he'd kissed Roma, or Gina, when the bottom of his stomach drops out and heat floods his system. Adrenaline spikes as the feedback loops between them.

But there's nowhere for it to go. Murphy pulls away and Bellamy's breath stutters. He licks his lips. He feels unsteady, but all he can do is slouch slightly in the water rather than betray how he feels like the world tipped a little as they glanced off such strong awareness of each other. ]

Not this time.

[ He'd promised Octavia it would be alright. But Bellamy still doesn't see a way out of that situation where one of them didn't die. ]

We were in a bad position. If you hadn't shown up with Indra and Pike, I'd probably have died.

[ Willfully ignoring that Clarke might have given up the passcode to save him. ]

[wrackful]

[The feeling lingers like an echo, longer than it should or normally does. Murphy doesn't want to try and puzzle that out. He fixes his attention on the fish swimming looping patterns around each other on the other side of the pool, deliberately not looking at Bellamy as he waits it out.

At least, to a point. Talk of death is like a spear shot through him, ice cold and hooking his attention sharply back to Bellamy. The idea ALIE's soldiers had been about to drag him away for a nasty fate wasn't new - there was a reason why they'd stepped in when they did - but there's something that feels harsher about it now. A genuine squeeze of fear in his gut, looking at Bellamy's face, hearing the way he frames it so absolutely. That he would have died.

A piece of Murphy still can't believe that, though.]

But you think we can get out of this.

[Another absolute situation, every glimpse of a way out blocked off by another condition of their circumstances now. As far as Murphy can see, anyway - but that's the point.]

[deployed]

[ Murphy's fear rebounds as easily as the crackle of his earlier attentions had. Bellamy can't stave off a shiver. The urge to reach for Murphy's elbow rises and fades away as the shared sensation passes. He focuses on hope instead, rather than the dread he'd felt as he'd thrashed in the guards grip. ]

Yes. I do.

[ He won't let go of that until he's pinned down as hopelessly as he had been in the ground levels of Polis. It's just not an option. Bellamy won't let himself. ]

I'm going to get us out of here.

[ Though as far as Bellamy could tell, doing that meant winning this war. It's a tall order, but he's been up against impossible odds before. All isn't lost yet. ]

[wrackful]

[There was a time when Bellamy's bravery had just been a thin layer over a deeper pit of weakness. Murphy looks at him now, the certainty he speaks with, and wonders how much of that's still true. Some of it's avoidance, he knows it has to be, Bellamy unable to accept the idea he might never see Octavia again. But time would answer that, one way or another. Murphy doesn't need to hurt them both, again, trying to force Bellamy to give up on hope.]

You know I'm not going to be able to believe that until I see it.

[It's a steady, open admission, nothing sharp or defensive in how Murphy says it. It's just a fact. Right here, now, in the middle of this mission, he can't believe they're ever going home.]

wrap this?

[deployed]

[ It doesn't sound like an accusation. Bellamy recognizes Murphy's words for what they are: an explanation. It's not a denial. It's a challenge, something for Bellamy to dig in against and push towards their impossible escape. ]

I know.

[ And he should have known it when he'd said it first, but in the midst of that argument it had been hard to stay measured in response. ]

I'll say I told you so when we figure it all out.

ties a ribbon round it

[wrackful]

[It's that thread of understand again. The one somehow he and Bellamy always seemed to come back to. Maybe they'd lost it for a while, or been too angry and hurting to pay attention to it. But Murphy can feel it again now, holding Bellamy's gaze. He nods.

Then he looks away, mouth pressing down at the corners.]

Guess I'll have to let you.