twenty-two; THE SINGLE GREATEST THING SHE EVER DID

Her cheeks were wet with tears that would seemingly never stop falling as the sliding door opened. The guard gestured for her to go inside and the fifteen-year-old didn't hesitate to do so, rushing forward into the room where her mother stood.

"Mom!" She cried out, latching onto the woman, effectively ignoring the Chancellor, two guards, Abby Griffin, and her father who also happened to be in the room.

"I'm sorry, sir." She could just hear the guard speaking, "She was quite insistent."

Her mother's arms secured tightly around her and the woman pressed her face into her daughter's hair, exhaling a shaky breath.

"Oh, Reese." Elizabeth Kane breathed softly.

"Please." Reese cried, "Please don't take her from me!"

It took the woman only a moment to realise that her daughter wasn't speaking to her, but to Thelonious, who looked rather forlorn as it was, they were friends, they had been for years.

"I'm sorry." Thelonious spoke, "But the laws were set in place to keep our people strong and in order."

"But it's not fair." The teenager exclaimed through her tears, "She was only doing her job."

Elizabeth felt a lone tear slide down her cheek which she quickly swiped away before she removed herself from the embrace and placed her hands on her daughter's cheeks, swiping at the tears with her thumbs as she gazed at the only person in the world that she loved with absolutely everything in her heart.

"Oh, my darling Ellie!" She spoke, softly and soothingly, "It isn't fair, I know, but I broke the law and I have to face my punishment."

"But, I need you." She whispered brokenly, "I need you, please. You can't let them take you."

"I'd like to think that you'll always need me in some way or another." Elizabeth responded with a sad teasing edge, "But, I am always going to be with you, just not physically."

Reese sniffled as her mother moved her left hand from her daughter's face to her chest.

"I'm with you always. Here." She said quietly, pressing her hand just over her daughter's heart, "And I'm going to be rooting for you all the way through your life because that is my job as a mother and I don't want to go, sweetheart, I truly don't but I have to"

"Why'd you do it?"

Elizabeth paused, at both the question and the sight of her husband swiping furiously at a spot beneath his eye.

"I wasn't thinking of you when I did what I did." She answered honestly, thinking over the one decision that ultimately ended her life, "I was thinking about that woman who begged me to save her child and all I could hope was that, had I been in that position when I was having you, someone would have done the same for me."

Reese nodded and a few more tears slipped down her cheeks.

"Elizabeth, it's time," Thelonious spoke somberly.

"Darling, I love you." Her mother said quickly, pulling her into a fierce hug, "Don't you ever stop fighting for what you believe in because it's not in you to ever give up."

"I won't." She murmured.

"My beautiful Ellie, you are by a landslide, the single greatest thing I ever did." Elizabeth whispered, "May we meet again."

"May we meet again." Reese echoed softly, her voice cracking harshly.

Just as quickly as the embrace started, it was over and the guards were directing her mother to the airlock, the woman stopping once to hug Abby and once to whisper something into her husband's ear, kissing the overly stoic man softly before she stepped into the chamber and the door closed with an echoing hiss behind her and it suddenly felt all the more real.

"Dad!" Reese cried as she rushed to the man, grabbing onto his arm tightly, "Don't let them do this, please, she made a mistake. You can't let her be floated."

It felt so much more real now that her mother was standing on the other side of the glass.

"It's too late, El," Marcus responded harshly, his voice catching in his throat in his attempt remain strong for his daughter's sake.

"It's not too late, Daddy, please." She begged him, her voice becoming panicked as she saw Shumway flick a few switches, "Dad, stop them, you can stop them."

"I can't, Elizabeth. I can't." He exclaimed, his eyes looking anyway but his tearful daughter.

Reese let out a broken sob at the sight of her mother's face of acceptance and love as she gazed at her daughter and husband before Reese turned to her father one last time.

"Please stop them, Dad." She cried, "She's your wife!"

When she finally realised that her father wouldn't budge, she let out a frustrated sob as she turned back to her mother, who she would never be able to thank enough for everything she had done, who would never trade corny jokes back and forth with her again, and Reese was quite certain she'd never get to see another one of her father's wonderful smiles because it was only Elizabeth Kane who had ever brought those rare smiles forth with her terrible jokes and her strange dance moves and her relentless teasing.

"I love you." She said every emotion she had ever felt wrapped up into that one sentence.

"I love you more."

Reese did not even see the button pressed, only the metal wall opening and a shrill, heartbroken scream escaped her as her Elizabeth Kane was ripped from the ship and the teenager fell to the ground, sobs wracking her body as she screamed out in agony, her chest heaving painfully, and her breathing coming out laboured as she tried to get air into her lungs as she cried.

Marcus put his own heart-ripping grief to the backburner as he quickly made his way over to his daughter, crouching down next to her and pulling him into her arms.

"It's o–" He had started to comfort her before she cut him off, pushing him away from her as she scrambled to her feet, shoving away his next attempt to reach for her and hold her.

"Don't touch me!" She sobbed, "Don't touch me, don't touch me, you didn't stop it."

"Ellie, I couldn't," Marcus said painfully.

"Don't call me that." She shouted as she backed away from her father who had frozen in shock at her tone, "It's your fault."

"El–"

"No!" She screamed, her voice shaking as she stared at the male mere feet from her, "I will never forgive you for this."

Reese felt strangely numb as she exited the dropship, any tears she had were shed last night over Bellamy and Alec and Octavia, even Finn. She found herself wracked with guilt over the sight before her, unable to meet Delphia's eyes as she held her, the woman's hands bound in front of her loosely, she hadn't wanted to tie up the woman who continued to save her but none of the others was comfortable leaving the grounder free to walkabout.

"Reese?" Miller called softly, his worried eyes following the woman who moved further from the ship.

Her eyes swept over the carnage and there wasn't a single colour in sight, unlike the day they had stepped off of the dropship for the first time. She gagged at the smell of rotting flesh and sniffled when her eyes found the spot she had last seen Bellamy.

"He's gone." She murmured numbly.

No one else made a sound as they stared at what they had done and when Reese turned her head to look at Clarke, she frowned as something silver hit the ground next to the blonde girl's foot and immediately a red smoke began to pour from it as three more smoke devices were thrown over a remaining wall and onto the ground around them

"What the hell?" Jasper questioned.

"Mountain Men." Both Anya and Delphia hissed out in unison.

As Reese opened her mouth to ask them what the hell they were talking about, she inhaled the smoke and her eyes began to water.

She coughed loudly, stumbling back and into Delphia who wasn't able to keep her upright this time and they both collapsed beside one another. Reese brought the sleeve of Bellamy's jacket up to her mouth and nose in order to stop herself from inhaling the red substance but to no avail.

As her vision began to slowly darken, a pair of boots stopped in front of her and Reese rolled over onto her back, coughing violently as she stared up into the covered face of the masked monster before her vision went completely black.

✦❀✦

Her eyes slowly fluttered open and she groaned at the light which threatened to burn her retinas and her eyelids fluttered closed.

"Bell..." She croaked out as she reached out to grasp his arm, only to be met with air and she felt around in a groggy confusion for a few more moments before she halted her movements.

Something was wrong.

The woman opened her eyes once more when she finally noticed that she couldn't smell the soil that she and Octavia piled the blankets for their bed on, only the faint smell of medical supplies that she had committed to memory after spending most of her childhood in the med bay with her mother. All she could see was white, literally, not the dark orange tarp that she and Octavia used for shelter or the few weapons that lay around their area, or even Bellamy's tent that she'd spent a few nights in.

"Where the hell am I?" She whispered to herself as she slowly pulled herself into a sitting position, wincing as her head throbbed and she felt a sting in her arm causing her to glance down at her arm in confusion when she saw the needle from an IV protruding from the crease of her elbow.

She furrowed her eyebrows as she gently pulled the needle from her arm and swung over legs over the bed of the hospital type bed she was on and she discovered that her feet were bare as they were introduced to the cold tiles.

"What the hell happened?"

"Bellamy!"

In her disoriented state, she took the time to take a look around the white room to work out, at the very least, that she was in some sort of medical bay.

But her real questions were where and how and why wasn't she wearing the clothes that she last remembered and where was her mother's ring?

"He's still out there, let me go!"

Her dark eyes quickly found the door and she stumbled to it, her hand finding the doorknob and she quickly twisted it, frowning when the door didn't budge and she pulled on it once more.

Letting out a frustrated groan, she slammed the palm of her hand against the surface, glaring at it all the while.

"Reese."

The woman froze before she stood on her toes in order to peer out the circular window and across the way to another door with an identical circular window but the person staring back at her caused Reese's shoulder's to slump in relief.

"Rowena." She whispered in shock as she caught sight of the girl staring at her, a look of panic and relief shining in her bright blue eyes and it was then that a glint of light caught her attention and she turned her head to see a silver sign with black writing on it.

MOUNT WEATHER
QUARANTINE WARD

"What the hell?" She whispered to herself.

══════════════════

the final chapter of act one!

reese's journey is going to get a bit dark in act two but i'm very excited and happy with what i've got planned so far.

thank you all so much for taking the time to read this book, thank you for all the votes and the lovely comments and thank you for sticking around if you've been here since i first posted reese's book in 2016 only to take it down and repost it like three times. it's finally where i wanted it to be and we're at the halfway mark for book one!

thank you so much for reading!

~r