#bbaw25

“What was that, Blake?” 

“I just said that it wasn’t touching your shoe, and that I didn’t see you.” 

Williams’ fist slams into Bellamy’s face, knocking him to the ground immediately. Bellamy can hear someone else approaching, but he doesn’t try to get up. Williams starts kicking him, pain flaring across his abdomen and hips where he’s hit. Bellamy curls up a little bit, but not enough to fully shield his chest, just enough to block Williams from his stomach. 

“You think you can talk back to me? You think you can disrespect me?” Williams roars, sounding angrier than Bellamy has ever heard him. Which doesn’t make any sense since Bellamy didn’t do anything. 

I probably made them look bad when the higher ups figured out that someone under their command was hiding a whole secret sister. 

“You think you can talk to me however you want. Well you can’t. Though I can understand where you got that idea since you spent all of your time with your whore mother, who could get away with anything… Well almost anything,” he says, laughing. 

He continues hitting Bellamy, and soon he’s joined by other people. Not that Bellamy opens his eyes to see who it is, he just keeps his eyes squeezed closed and tries to hold himself together. He doesn’t make a sound, his ears roaring too loudly for him to hear any more of what the guards are saying. Which, to be honest, is probably for the best. Blood starts to fill his mouth as a boot slams into his jaw. Then he’s being hauled up, and thrown against his bucket. Dirty water flies everywhere, drenching Bellamy too. He sputters, blood mixing with the filthy water, making the smell even more unbearable. 

The smell is overwhelming, and Bellamy retches, but there isn’t anything to come up. Bile sticks to his tongue and teeth, making him gag again. The footsteps are receding when Bellamy’s hearing finally starts to work again. They’re laughing too, at least four voices. Bellamy tries to force himself up onto his knees, but his vision spins with the effort. Everything fades to black before he can try again. Everything hurts when a hand landing on his shoulder wakes Bellamy back up. Then he’s hauled to his feet, being dragged forward. 

He gags again, pain racking his system. He fades in and out, distant talking reaching his ears. He can’t understand what they’re saying, and genuinely has no resolution to try either. Then Bellamy is laid down on a softer surface, and he pulls his heavy eyes open. A familiar face swims into view, concerned eyes locking onto his own. 

Abby Griffin? Oh, I must be in the infirmary. I guess someone found me, and decided to drag my sorry ass here. Not that I deserve it. After all, I should have been floated with my mother. Why couldn’t they have finished off the job for me? 

Bellamy winces as Abby tips his head to the side to look at his bruised jaw. 

“Where did you find him?” 

“In a corridor on my way back home after work.” 

“Alright, thank you. I’ll deal with this, and you can go home,” Abby replies before turning back to Bellamy. “Mr. Blake, right?” 

“Yeah,” Bellamy rasps, causing himself to cough. 

“Ok, can you tell me what happened?” Abby asks, trying to pull his uniform open. 

A small shake of his head is the only answer he gives her, and she frowns immediately. They both know he’s lying, but there isn’t any reason to push him right now, so she drops it. Bellamy lets her finagle his arms out of the sleeves, watching her eyes widen as she sees the bruising on his torso. She probes around gently, staying light enough not to worsen his injuries. 

“You definitely have a few broken ribs, so you’ll need to get an x-ray. I think you dislocated your hip too. While the bruises on your face look bad, you probably didn’t break anything, even though you did bite your tongue pretty badly. I’ll get some pain meds, and then we’ll get you an x-ray, so we can decide exactly what we need to do to get you better.” 

Why does she care? I know it’s her job, but the meds seem excessive. 

Bellamy forces himself up into a sitting position, even as his body starts shaking. Abby comes back as he manages to stabilize himself. 

“What are you doing? You could cause one of your ribs to puncture your lung!” she demands, racing over. 

She tosses the meds on the table beside the cot Bellamy is settled on. Abby grabs Bellamy’s arm, gently forcing him onto his back again. 

“Stay down unless you can’t take the meds lying down.” 

She holds them out, and Bellamy just shakes his head. He turns his face away from her, a single tear tracing its way down his face. 

Just go away. I just want to sleep my headache away, and figure out how I’m going to work in this condition. I can’t get into trouble, not if I ever want to see Octavia again. I have to see her again. Since it was guards, the less this is talked about, the better. The less likely I am to get into trouble. 

“Bellamy, come on. You have to let me take care of you. That’s my job, and we’re alone here anyway. There’s no reason not to. We don’t even have to talk about how this happened, at least not yet. For now, let’s get you patched up, and we’ll worry about everything else later.” 

“Fine, but no meds,” Bellamy rasps, even though he’s not completely sure why he’s so adamant on this. 

Maybe he just doesn’t want to admit how much the pain feels deserved. It’s probably nothing compared to what Octavia is feeling emotionally and mentally right now. Nothing can make up for what he did, but this is a good place to make up some of it. The hunger pains from starving himself were starting to disappear, and Bellamy hadn’t quite warmed up to the idea of punishing himself in any other way just yet. He was close, but now it seemed like that could be put on hold since this hurts more than anything he would have done to himself. 

“Fine,” Abby relents, setting the meds back down on the table as though he’ll change his mind, and take them if they sit there long enough. 

She pulls up the rails on either side of the bed, and pulls down the wheels. Bellamy allows himself to close his eyes as Abby takes him to the x-ray machine. He starts to fade in and out, not really comprehending anything that Abby says to him throughout the process. She pulls the headboard of the bed up, and pulls him forward too so she can slide in behind him. He starts to wake up more as she begins wrapping up his ribs. A slight whimper slides out of Bellamy’s throat before he can stop it. 

“Shh, it’s ok. I don’t know why you’re punishing yourself, but you have to let it go,” Abby whispers, a hand resting in his curling hair. 

The gel has mostly come out of his hair, and it’s starting to stick to his face. Memories of his mom running a hand through his hair when he was sick, or got hurt starts to break through his mental barrier. He’s been able to push away all comfortable thoughts about Aurora and Octavia up until now, but he’s too tired and in pain to stop it now. Tears well up in his eyes as his exhausted senses start to betray him. It’s almost as though he can smell his mother’s perfume, and can hear Octavia laughing in the background. One of the few moments where everyone was happy, and Bellamy was at ease. More tears start to track his way down his face, but not enough for Abby to notice. Bellamy closes his eyes again, allowing himself to drift into the illusion that his head is making around him. 

His chest is aching fiercely when he wakes up again, though this time he’s alone. His chest is neatly wrapped, and his hair was brushed out while he was asleep. There’s a curtain pulled around his bed, cutting him off from the rest of the infirmary, though he can still hear everything going on outside. He doesn’t try to sit up yet, trying to give his body time to readjust before he overloads his pain sensors like that. Light chatter reaches his ears along with the sounds of machinery. The white of the sheets and curtain feels a little oppressively bright on his tired eyes, but he forces them to stay open. He works his jaw, just a little, but enough to make one side of his face light up with pain. It feels good, or at least better than letting his thoughts wander since his brain is becoming used to the ache in his midsection. 

Time passes by quickly as he fully wakes up. Abby comes through the curtain a mere thirty minutes after he opened his eyes again. 

“Bellamy, I’m glad that you’re up. How are you feeling? Is talking any easier?” 

“I’m alright,” Bellamy answers, his jaw sending shock-waves of pain through his face with each syllable. He forces his face to stay neutral though, because he wants to be released as quickly as possible, and hopefully before the guards are alerted to the fact that he’s here. 

“Are you sure?” 

“Yeah, talking isn’t even that bad.” 

“Well, I’ll get you a prescription for some pain meds while you heal. I’ll also grab a form that you can fill out if you decide to talk about what happened. You can turn it into any guard station, and they’ll take your complaint, and look into it. I’ll call your boss, and tell him that you got into an accident, and will need a few days off of work.” 

“That’s not necessary. I’ll talk to them.” 

“Oh, ok. I guess that’s fine, though I don’t mind doing it for you.” 

“I’m ok.” 

“I’ll write you a note then.” Abby stands up. “I’ll get all of that done, and then discharge you. You’re still on bedrest though, and you have to get someone to wrap your ribs twice a day. If you don’t have someone to help you with that, then come back here, and one of the nurses on shift will handle it for you.” 

Bellamy nods, trying to blink away the stars in his vision. Abby gives him one more tense smile before disappearing back through the curtain. She discharges him less than half an hour later, and he’s able to limp back to his room with just enough time to get inside before the lights shut off in the dorms. It’s easy enough for him to fall asleep, though he wakes up only a few hours later in a lot more pain than when he went to sleep. 

Damn, I guess I should have picked up those meds before I left. Maybe this is better though. 

He pulls himself into an upright position, wincing. 

I’m not gonna be able to go back to sleep right now, so I may as well get a shower before work. Then I can just wrap my ribs by myself, there’s no way it’ll be that bad. 

He climbs out of bed, holding his breath as the pain ramps up. Sharp pain runs through his chest and hips with dull aches running farther down his legs, and up through his collarbone and shoulders. While the shower does help ease his aching muscles, scrubbing the dirty water smell away makes everything else hurt more. He even has to stop a few times as his vision starts to fail. Finally though, the smell is completely gone, and Bellamy is clean. He shoddily wraps up his ribs, and gets dressed for work. It’s still not time for his normal shift, but he walks to work through the dark halls anyway since he knows he won’t be getting back to sleep any time soon. Bellamy finds himself dissociating as he finds his way back to the hall where the assault happened just the day before. 

His ribs resist his every movement, but his far away mental state makes it easier to ignore as he scrubs the floor and walls since no one cleaned up after he was found in the hall. The dim night-time lights are barely enough for him to see, so it takes him longer to scrub the blood out of the floor than it should have. Though he’s still cleaned the whole hall before the morning lights come on. No one is out walking through this area, so he just continues on his route from the day before. Today was supposed to be his day off anyway, so he can go home as soon as he finishes up from yesterday before someone reports that it wasn’t done. That takes longer than it should have too, leaving him out working until noon. The bell for lunch goes off as he’s heading back to his room. 

I don’t want to stop and get food. I’ll eat dinner, probably. 

Things don’t go exactly as planned since there’s a knock on his door as soon as he’s finished changing into pajamas. 

What if I just pretend like I’m not here? I’m starting to come back into my body, and it’s way too painful to deal with people. 

There’s another knock on his door, and he sighs. Abby is the one standing outside, bandages in one hand, and a medicine bottle in the other. 

“Mr. Blake, I heard that you didn’t pick up your medicine. I assumed you were too tired, so I got it for you. Can I come in?” 

“Sure, I guess. Thanks,” Bellamy says, opening the door wider. 

Abby walks in, looking around the small, closet-like room. “Is this where you stay all the time?” she asks, her eyes lingering on his tiny bed. 

“Yep.” 

“Ok, well take one of these, and I’ll wrap your ribs again for you before I head out.” 

Bellamy nods, his head spinning. Exhaustion is already trying to pull him back down, and that’s with the pain still overwhelming his senses. He takes the pill she hands him, and sits down on his bed. She gives him a hard look when she sees the bandages around his chest, but doesn’t say anything when Bellamy ignores her. He feels better once Abby’s done, and she smiles gently at him. 

“I’ll come by to check on you again later.”