— CHAPTER EIGHT,
changing of the tides.

RUBY WAKES GASPING FOR AIR.

Near her, Abby Griffin jumps at the sudden sound of Ruby's gasping. She springs out of her seat when she realizes that Ruby is awake. She rushes over to the young woman and grabs her arms. "Ruby, hey! You're okay, you're home."

Ruby's eyebrows furrow in confusion as she looks at Abby. Then she looks around, taking in her surroundings. She begins to calm down when she realizes where she is.

Med bay.

"What happened?" Ruby asks as Abby gently lets go of her arms and sits on her bed. "Why am I in Medical?"

"You don't remember what happened?" Abby asks, concern and confusion in her eyes. "Nothing?"

"No," Ruby shakes her head in response. Her head starts to pound as she tries to remember what happened. "I can't remember anything past leaving to warn the Grounders."

Abby takes a deep breath before she tells Ruby what happened to her at the village, "you were knocked out. The Grounders tied you up, they crucified you. They nailed your wrists to a board and tied a rope around your waist. The acidic tree sap put two degree burns all over your neck and shoulders. They were going to kill you."

"Octavia?" Ruby sits up in the bed. "Where's Octavia? She was with me."

"She's missing." Abby informs her. Ruby's heart falls to her stomach. "Do you know who saved you?"

Ruby shakes her head.

"Bellamy did." Abby says. She watched as Ruby's entire demeanor changes at the mention of Bellamy. Abby continues, "Pike. . . he wants you locked up, Ruby."

"He can't." Ruby tells her, "the Grounders tried to kill me. There isn't enough evidence that I actually did warn them."

"Pike knows there's traitors in this camp, Ruby." Abby whispers, grabbing Ruby's hand and squeezing it tightly. "He knows you're one of them. Eyes are everywhere. Ears are everywhere. You need to be careful. Do you understand?"

Ruby nods. "Luca? Is he okay? Ryland?"

"Both are okay for now. Luca has eyes on him all the time. Ryland, however, is managing to get past all of Pike's guards and suspicions." Abby tells her.

"I gotta go," Ruby states, throwing the blanket off of her legs. "I need to change clothes."

"Here," Abby says as she stands. She grabs a rack of clothes to hand to Ruby. "You need to come back every three hours so I can check your burns and your wrists."

"Thank you, Abby. Really." Ruby says with a fake smile as she takes the clothes from Abby's hands.

Before she can walk away, Abby grabs her arm. Ruby looks back at Abby, "what is it?"

"Do not tell anyone about your blood," Abby drops her voice to a low whisper. "No one, do you understand?"

Ruby nods. "I understand."

Abby releases her and Ruby leaves the med bay. She walks down the halls with her new clothes clutched in her hands.

Several minutes late, she stands outside her old home. She takes a deep breath, then she opens the door. As soon as she does, Ryland springs up off of her couch.

Before she knows it his arms are wrapped around her tightly. She wraps her left arm around his torso, careful of her bandaged wrists.

"Are you okay?" She asks as they pull apart.

"Are you okay?" He retorts, his eyebrows shooting towards the sky. "You were—"

"Gone. I know." Ruby says, voice softer than usual. "I'm here now, Ry. I'm here now."

"For how long?" Ryland asks. "How long is it until Pike gets ahold of you and throws you in that cell with Amara and Lincoln and the other Grounders? How long until he kills Luca, Lincoln, Amara, and the other Grounders for simply being who they are?"

"He won't." Ruby's voice is much more harsh than she intends it to be. "Pike is just a man. And like most men, he abuses his power. . . and his students. You remember that, Ry? You remember when he beat the hell out of Murphy and then back-handed me because I defended Murphy?"

Ryland nods, "yes, I do because River got up and attacked him and when he pushed her off of him. I got up and hit him so hard he fell back into his desk. But that was on the Ark, we're on the ground now, Ru. You have to be careful."

"I am." She tells him. "Now, I gotta change clothes."

Ruby moves past Ryland, making sure to nod at him as she passes him. She pushes open her old bedroom door as hears her front door shut.

She freezes as she looks at her bedroom. She remembers it all. She remembers all of the nights that River and Ryland spent in this bedroom with her. They laughed together, they cried together. Everything they did. . . it was together.

Now River is dead.

She remembers when she was just a little girl with the best family she could've ever asked for.

It's all so different now. Her mother is dead, her step-father is dead, her biological father is dead, she has a brother now. Everything's changed.

She sighs to herself, putting the clothes on the bed she used to sleep in.

She shrugs her sword off of her shoulder and sets it on her bed. She then unties her boots and pulls them off her feet. She takes her shirt of next, and then her pants, leaving her in just her bra and underwear. She grabs the clean black jeans that Abby gave her and pulls them on over her scarred legs. She zips the zipper and buttons the button.

Then her door opens.

She's fast to pull her sword from its sheath and spin around to face the intruder. She falters when she sees who it is. Bellamy stares back at her with wide eyes.

"What the hell are you doing here?" She asks.

Bellamy stares at her. "I— um. . ."

"Spit it out," she says harshly.

"I uh— I wanted to check on you." He shrugs.

"I'm fine. You can leave now." Ruby rolls her eyes. She spins around and drops her sword back on her bed, keeping it out of its sheath in case Bellamy decides he's suicidal.

Ruby's entire body freezes as Bellamy's finger graze her back. Her jaw tense. "Kill marks," he mutters. "Sixteen of them."

"You don't have enough space on your back for your kills, do you?" She snarls. "Not after Mount Weather, not after you slaughtered three hundreds Grounders."

"I don't." He shakes his head. "And when the time comes, neither will you."

"That time hasn't come yet," she tells him. She closes her eyes, trying to hide her sadness and her anger. "Bellamy—"

"I know." He whispers. "We're on opposite sides."

He pulls his hand away from her back. She quickly shrugs on the gray short sleeve shirt, followed by her fingerless leather gloves. When she turns back to face Bellamy, she looks like a Sky Person again.

"You murdered hundreds." She whispers. Then her voice curls with anger. "With no remorse. . . they were my people, my people! They had families. People lost children on that battle field."

"I was doing it to protect my people." Bellamy tells her. He shakes his head in despair. "You're my people, Ruby."

"No, I'm not." She says, tears gathering in her speckled eyes. "You don't even have to say it now and you didn't have to say it then. The moment you saw Luca standing beside me. . . I saw it in your eyes. You don't care. You don't love me, Bellamy. If you did, you never would've done what you did."

Bellamy squeezes his eyes shut, fighting back his own tears. He never wanted this to happen to them. He can remember when they were happy together. They're stolen kisses in the dead of night. They had the hardest goodbyes but the happiest hellos. They shared quiet conversations just between the two of them, comforting the other when they needed it.

He remembers it all.

"I do love you." Bellamy says, moving to stand in front of her. He looks down at her, her eyes roll upwards, looking at the ceiling. Bellamy desperately wants to grab her face in between his hands and make her look at him, "I do, Ruby."

"How do I know you're not lying?" She tilts her head to the side. "You could trying to get on my good side because I don't side with Pike."

Bellamy swears her words punch him right across the face. His brows furrow.

"Ruby." He tells her. "You're the love of my life. You know that—"

"I don't." She cuts him off. Her eyes move to lock with his. "You killed my people. You walked away from me. You stopped searching for me. You're on Pike's side, the wrong side. This isn't who you are, Bellamy."

"This isn't who you are." Bellamy snaps. His entire demeanor changes in seconds. "You always put your people before you. The ones that you lived with. . . in space! Not the ones who tortured your brother or speared your friend or almost killed you more than once or killed your best friend."

Bellamy can't get anymore words out before her foot connects with his chest. He stumbles back with a gasp, he only stops when his back hits the wall. When he regains his composure and opens his eyes, he freezes. The tip of Ruby's sword grazes his Addams apple.

"I told you not to use her name!" She shouts, "even if she made it out alive, she would have forgiven Trikru because that's who she was. She was kind and too innocent for Earth. She cared about you, Bellamy. She trusted you with me and look what you've done." Tree Clan.

She lowers her sword.

"We've lost all of them to the Grounders." Bellamy tells her.

"Not all of them." She shakes her head. "The Mountain Men, remember them? Cage, Tsing, Emerson, Dante. They killed Fox. . . and so many more. They would've killed Jasper, Monty, Ryland, Miller, Harper, you. But remember who else we lost in that mountain? Hmm?" She raises her eyebrows.

Bellamy's lip curls in anger.

"Remember when you and Clarke pulled that lever, killing Maya and everyone that helped us? You guys broke Jasper. You broke him! He'll never be the same after losing her. And you lost me, too Maybe not literally, but. . . you lost Ruby. The old me, the Ruby that could see the bright side of the tunnel. Now. . . now there's no light. It just pitch black at the end of the tunnel. I'm trapped and there's no goddamn way out."

Bellamy doesn't know what to do when Ruby finally allows her tears to fall down her cheeks. A horrible sob slips through her lips as everything finally catches up to her. She turns her back on him and walks towards her bed. She sets her sword down beside her and brings her hands up to her eyes. She hides her face from Bellamy, not wanting to show any weakness in front of her enemy.

For a moment, Bellamy stares at her, his heart cracking in half. Then he turns on his heel, and he walks out of her room. And then he leaves her apartment.

As he walks out of the apartment, Bellamy freezes. Ryland leans against the wall, his gun in hand. There's a terrifying gleam in his eyes. It's unlike Bellamy has ever seen in Ryland's eyes before. He's seen Ryland angry, he's seen him distraught. But this is something else entirely. This is pure murder in the Daniels boy's eyes.

"If you use her name to defend that man again, i'll kill you, Bellamy." Ryland informs him. "And if you keep fucking around with Ruby's feelings, I'm put a a goddamn bullet in both of your knees and then your dick. I'll let you suffer for a little while and then I'll let Ruby finish you off. You got me, Blake?"

Bellamy shakes his head before he walks down the hall. Ryland watches him until he rounds the corner. He then holsters his gun and rushes inside Ruby's apartment.

He finds Ruby on her bed, her sword laying beside her. She lays on her side, facing away from him. She's curled in on herself. He can tell by the way her body shakes that she's crying.

Ryland walks forward and sheaths Ruby's sword before he sits it against her bed. He then lays beside her. Ruby rolls onto her side and rests her head on his chest. Ryland wraps his arms around her and pulls her close to him.

They cry together, holding each other.

Sometimes, it's easy to forget that they're still just children in a brand new world.

Eventually,  the two fall asleep side-by-side, just like they always had after crying in this room. Only this time River isn't asleep with them.

River os long gone.

And yet she still holds such a strong and powerful influence over so many people.

Ruby, Ryland, Marcus, Clarke, Jasper, Monty, Octavia.

Bellamy.

As Bellamy lays in his own bed, his mind is overcome with many thoughts.

What if Ruby and Clarke had been right and Pike is wrong?

What if Ryland and Ruby are. . . he wouldn't even think that. He shakes his head, trying to estate the horrendous thoughts from his mind. Why is he like? Why is he so jealous all of the time? Ryland and Ruby are best friends. They have been since they were children. They're each other's brother and sister.

Bellamy wishes that he and Ruby can do better.

He wishes that they could see each other's reasonings behind the side of the civil war that they've chosen.

And most importantly, he wishes he could bring back that bright end of the tunnel for her.

_______________________________

word count: 2,319
episode: bitter harvest

yikes.

there was a lot of emotion in this original chapter but now there's a shit ton of emotion in this chapter now that i've rewritten it. there's sadness, rage, love, hatred, jealously, admiration. it's all so heartbreaking to see everyone go through such a range of emotions in such a short time.

but, ruby is okay!!! she's just going to be in a lot of pain because of her wrists and the burns but she's made it through way, way worse.

say it with me guys, FUCK BELLAMY BLAKE. seriously, he's such an ass. i feel like he does still care about ruby but in that scene between them, he was trying to manipulate her at the same time he admitted that he still does love her. but ruby hates him so much right now and is so angry at him that she just didn't give a single fuck. and i love that for her because we love when women stand their ground against asshole men.

also, that scene with abby 🥲. ruby's mommy issues don't come from having a bad mom, they come from having no mom. but at least abby is here and even though i dislike abby, she is always there when ruby needs a mother the most and it makes me so incredibly happy to know that ruby will always have that kind of support system.

and then ryland and her 🥹🥹🥹. they're my babies, it's true. i've said it before and i will say it again. they're so so SO special to me. their relationship possibly means more to me than any other best friend relationship i've written in any of my books (yes, even more than aiden & glenn, aiden & payton, and odessa & theo). and that's saying something because i love those three friendships more than a lot of things. ryland will be there for ruby through everything. even if she is on the wrong side of something, ryland will be there. there's no stopping their type of love.

and ryland threatening bellamy >>>. that was so sexy and protective of him. ugh, i need to find me a ride or die like him.