Bronding--Bro Bonding

[Marcus Kane]

Marcus found Bellamy in the makeshift bar the people were building. It seemed a good place to let the people relax, and Marcus wasn't above having a drink every now and then so he didn't mind the idea. In fact, seeing everyone working together made him proud. Right now they needed unity. They needed to all prove they were strong--and they were doing it! He paused there to look over the workings, and walked to the table where Blake was having a rest, or drink. Once he got his own drink, Marcus sat down and put his coat on the table. "Mind if I join you?" He asked, after he had already done so.

Marcus drank of his drink before speaking to Bellamy. "Everyone is really starting to work together. We are proving that we are strong as a people." He was proud and it showed on his face. They were overcoming. Marcus wasn't so foolish as to think this eased the past, but he liked seeing everyone working towards something. It looked like hope. "I wanted to talk to you about your place here. I know on the Ark you were a janitor, but I don't think we have much of a need for one right now. You seemed good at building. Had that wall built around the dropship. Is that something you like?" He was not about to ask Bellamy to be a builder. He was going to tell him he was joining the guard, but Marcus walked to make sure that was what Bellamy wanted first. Besides, Marcus enjoyed building up to the moment. He was trying to make this a gesture. Bellamy could use some good news right now, and Marcus wanted to give it too him.

Bellamy Blake

[Bellamy Blake]

Tag: Marcus Kane

whatever

THE HELL WE WANT

Bellamy wasn't a heavy drinker. He seldom touched the stuff. He had drank once excessively on the Ark, but never again could he risk ever getting drunk. Especially on the ground. Right now however, he had decided to indulge in a drink. Perhaps it was just an excuse to be around people . . . or maybe he didn't want to be around anyone right now. He wasn't entirely certain. He just knew that coping with his actions at Mount Weather was taking a toll on him. And these moments when things slowed down, when he couldn't use the excuse of tending to his duties and helping others . . . he felt the burden of his actions more intensely than ever.

He was suddenly distracted from staring down the contents of his cup when he heard a familiar voice ask to join him, and promptly sit down. Bellamy's eyes met Kane's, wondering what had brought him here, not that it was unsual to have a conversation with the man. Bellamy's position at now called Arkadia was . . . unofficial. But he respected Kane's authority as well as the Chancellor's and wouldn't do anything to directly go against their laws. Bellamy gave a slow nod at Kane's words, as the younger male looked back down at his cup. "It's all we can do. Move forward." Without that, he finished his drink, setting the cup back down on the table as Marcus continued, talking about his place and . . . building?

He wanted him to be a builder? He had made mention of his former position on the Ark, a janitor. But now he was asking him if he enjoyed building. How the hell did he answer that? "I did it cause it had to be done," Bellamy stated truthfully. He wondered if there was a problem in their wall and that was why he was asking him? "But there are people here better skilled at building than I am." Another honest statement. "So if you're offering me a job as a . . . builder, I'll have to respectfully decline." He wasn't a builder. If anything, he was one who tended to destroy more than he built. Only instead of thinking of things, he was thinking more of people . . . and their lives.

[Marcus Kane]

"Decline," Marcus repeated, trying to keep the smug look from his face, pleased with the answer. "You don't enjoy the idea of building some of the first foundations for our people's continue survival here?" Marcus wouldn't want that for him either. He was proud of Bellamy, and even though he had arrested him before, and had not approved of his actions--his ability to keep the people around him safe was a valuable skill. One Marcus planned to use to the fullest. He wanted to help Bellamy learn to not just lead a group of kids, but a Battalion of guardsmen. Perhaps even a city. Marcus knew that his (though technology Abby's) leadership here could not last forever. There wasn't many leaders left amidst there group. Marcus knew who had potential.

Marcus had to hold back a grin as he set forward, leaning over the table slightly. "I read your file when we first started trying to figure out who helped you shot Jaha. Made a study of you to figure out who would trust you." Shumway had been trusted, and not considered, and the betray had hurt Marcus. Though he had floated his own father, and floating Shumway had been an easier choice then that. Not that it had come to floating him. He had ended his own life before they could get to him. "Your test scores were good, you were resourceful. That was what was said about you the most often. Perhaps you rather you take a more technical trade. You have friends in Engineering, mechanics. We will need farmers. Are any of these appealing to you?" The way he said it made it clear Marcus didn't think so. That this was not even a real question.

"Because if not, then I have a job in mind for you. One that would depends on your resourcefulness, and an understanding of this world that you might have better then the rest of us here." Marcus finished his drink, and sat his cu[ aside. "If you can find peace as a farmer, take it. You've earned it. You did what no one else might have been able to do here, and you should know that you did good, son. I'd like to see what more good you can do." Standing up, Marcus picked up the jacket in one hand, still not showing nay signs of handing it over. "Take some time to think about, and then come see me." With that Marcus handed over the jacket to Bellamy, and the rested his free hand on his shoulder.

"I don't know what the guard means to you. But on the ground we can make things different." With that Marcus walked past him and left Bellamy with the offer of joining the guard and time to think. Marcus walked outside, and moved to stand near the wires that protected the place. Looking out, he saw a world of chance.

[Bellamy Blake]

Tag: Marcus Kane

whatever

THE HELL WE WANT

Bellamy felt a surge of guilt as Kane started talking about shooting Jaha. Though, he didn't seem to be saying it in an accusatory way. More in a sense that he had been interested in how Bellamy had managed it. The younger male one thing and one thing for certain: when it came to protecting his family or people, he would be willing to do anything. Murdering the Chancellor. Infiltrating Mount Weather. Whatever it was, he would never half ass the job. But he remained silent, just listening rather than interjecting in what Marcus was saying, as he seemed to be leading up to something.

He asked him about engineering and mechanics, and Bellamy just looked at him, knowing that his gaze showed disinterest in those fields but Marcus appeared to anticipate that, for he didn't await a verbal response. He had a job for him? Something that involved resourcefulness . . . understanding of the world they lived in. Was that really him? Could he really be those things? Bellamy's eyes fell to the guard jacket that Kane handed over to him, seeing it set on the table. He felt an array of emotions flood him.

His tumultuous history with the guard involved acceptance, termination, and pretending. And now . . . was this an offer? Bellamy's jaw clenched, his fixed on the jacket, feeling more than seeing Kane's hand on his shoulder. He seemed to see something in Bellamy that Bellamy did not see in himself. But the idea of being on the ground, and make things different . . . sounded appealing. Tempting. All that Bellamy wanted. He was whatever the people needed him to be. He lived for them. If this was what was best, then how could he deny it? Yet, how could he automatically accept it too, knowing what he had done.

He picked up the jacket in his hand, not yet putting it on but instead, moved to where Kane stood, and positioned himself in a stance next to him. Like Kane, Bellamy was looking out into the distance, his head straight ahead. He let a few moments of silence pass before he spoke. "I had wanted to join the guard to protect my family. To give them the best opportunity I could." To better take care of Octavia. To find a way that his mother didn't have to sleep with Grus.

"I want to believe that I can help make a difference. That I can help protect our people." He had gotten his mother killed. He had shot the Chancellor. He had caused the culling. He had failed so many delinquents. He had wiped out an entire civilization. And yet . . . Kane still seemed to have faith in him. Enough to offer him this jacket. "But I pulled out that radio to cut communication with the Ark. I failed our people so many times." He clenched his jaw again with emtoion, trying to hold it all in. Waiting a few moments to regain his composure, he continued.

"Do you really believe this can do that?" He asked, turning his head to look at Kane. Because, Bellamy needed something to believe in. He needed to know that this pain that consumed him, would fade with the hope of a better future. The war with the grounders was far from over but this time now . . . allowed them a chance to breathe. And Bellamy wanted that. He wanted to be able to breathe when all he could feel was that he was suffocating. "That we can make things different?" He didn't know what emotion was seeping out in his expression, but it wasn't the usual stoic guarded one. Right now, he felt like a lost little boy who was hurt. Rather than a guarded individual that always needed to be strong.

[Marcus Kane]

Bellamy walked up to stand beside him, and Marcus didn't speak first. He wanted to know what was happening inside the younger man's head, and the best way to learn that was to give Bellamy control of the conversation. "I had wanted to join the guard to protect my family. To give them the best opportunity I could." He could see that. Marcus had personally floated the officer that had taken advantage of Aurora; though that had been slightly personal too. Aurora and Marcus had . . . . and that was a long time ago. "I want to believe that I can help make a difference. That I can help protect our people." Kane honestly believed that if Bellamy learned to really work the system that he could one day build a city that rivaled the ones that he wanted to try to build.

It was his next words that made Marcus turn his head to look at him. "But I pulled out that radio to cut communication with the Ark. I failed our people so many times." The radio. He knew that Abby had put everything into the radio that came down with her pod and Raven. He had not asked why it took so long to work, only assuming that it had been damaged in the drop. Between that and the kids taking off their bands, it had been the proof he needed to push for the culling. "Do you really believe this can do that?" Bellamy asked, finally looking at him. "That we can make things different?" Marcus didn't say anything right away, as the realization of what had actually happened on the ground was starting to come to him. It wasn't hard to guess why. Blake had been an wanted man until Jaha pardoned him in return for the name of the guard (and the fact that it was a guard had pissed Marcus off, especially since he had been the one people blamed) that had gotten him to do it.

Kane watched Bellamy's face for a long moment, but then decided that Bellamy was already pardoned, and the punishment he would be giving himself would be worse then any pointless retaliation that Marcus could give him. And he didn't even think Bellamy needed punishment. The fault was not in the him, but in the one who used it to his advantage. Lifting his hand, Marcus rubbed over the growing stubble there, and took a deep breath., before speaking in a tone that wasn't as sure fire and bold as his normal one. "We had known about the flaw in the air system for a year by the time we sent the kids down, and talks of the culling had been there." He looked away from Bellamy, not proud of how he had ignored the hope and only worked toward his own goal. "I never put faith in the Earth being livable. I held meetings, and went behind Jaha and Abby's backs to push the votes I needed." He had been so sure. SO very sure that was the only way. "I had a someone I cared deeply about, and even when they could no longer support me---I was so sure that the only way to save our people was to reduce how many I was trying to save."

He ran his hand through his hair, and then dropped it; turning to face Bellamy. "I am the one who put the idea forward, son, and I am the one who used everything that happened down here to make it happen. You didn't do this on your own. I take full responsibility for each of the lives I took." Reaching his hand out to touch Bellamy's shoulder, Marcus's tone begin to return to normal. "We cannot change the actions of our past. But here we can make sure we are better then who we were before. We are doing away with corporal punishment. I want to lead our people with hope rather then with fear. You gave then a bit of that when you returned the children to us. You built the first walls here, and showed the people we could survive. I didn't understand that when I first came down. I need someone there to help me see what I miss. Someone who wants peace, and a second chance as much as I do. Will you help me? "