𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒃𝒐𝒙; ❛ 𝑺𝑻𝑨𝒀 𝑯𝑰𝑮𝑯 ❜
↷ 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒓𝒆𝒅
❝ 𝒃𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒂𝒎𝒚 𝒊𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒎𝒖𝒓𝒑𝒉𝒚 ❞

Putting the fact that Becca's lab was Gabriella's actual wet dream coming to life, the huge house above it was absolutely gorgeous. Despite Raven's best attempts to start working immediately, Gabriella practically dragged her into the house and they both showered in actual hot water, a privilege Gabriella didn't have since before she got arrested.

After that, they both sat on the king sized bed in the room Gabriella picked. The blonde was laying on her back with her eyes closed as she enjoyed the feeling of the soft pillows while Raven was resting her back against the headboard with Becca's notebook in her lap.

"I think I'm in love."

Raven raised an unimpressed eyebrow, not even looking away from the notebook, "We've been knew."

Gabriella turned to lay on her stomach and smiled dreamily at the feeling of the silky pillow on her cheek, "I could just die here." when she didn't get a response, she opened one of her eyes to look up at the mechanic, only to roll them once she saw that her head was still stuck in her book, "What do you think?" she groaned at the silence, "Come on, Rae. You're standing in a literal mansion. We only ever saw this in that old show about kids going on a treasure hunt or something. Can you at least try to enjoy it before you go into the lab for a few days and refuse to leave."

Raven pursed her lips and finally put the book down before turning to look down at Gabriella with a knowing look on her face, "I think you should tell your boyfriend you're in love with him and call it a day."

"He's not my boyfriend, he's my bitch." Gabriella shot back immediately, earning another unimpressed look from the Reyes. She sat up too and then moved so she was sitting right next to her before admitting, "I don't know if I love him."

"You love him." Raven spoke after they sat in silence for a few moments, her tone making it known that it was a fact that left zero room for argument, "I'm not saying in what way but anyone paying attention can see it. Hell, I saw it the day we landed. Even Kane knows."

"It took me almost four years to realize I was in love with John." Gabriella explained, "And when I finally told him he left. I don't think I ever actually said it out loud but him doing that messed me up big time."

A sympathetic look passed Raven's face as she reached to squeeze her hand, "I know. But Bellamy is not Murphy."

Gabriella furrowed her eyebrows, thinking it over for a moment and then nodding, "Yeah . . . he's not."

There wasn't a single time Bellamy left her when she needed him. He was her rock that was there through thick and thin. He never once made her feel like she wasn't important on purpose. But putting that aside, when Gabriella actually thought about it, she realized those weren't the only reasons she fell for him.

He was loyal, incredibly brave and stubborn but also reckless and selfless despite his asshole-like attitude. When he cared, he cared with all of his heart and that probably showed the most when she looked back at the way he was with Octavia. He protected those he loved but still, when he looked at Gabriella he didn't look at her like she was someone in need of protection. Yet he did it anyway. Over and over again even though she never asked him too.

He did it because he cared too much.

"I love him." she breathed out, "I'm 𝘪𝘯 love with him."

There was a small smile on Raven's face as she nodded, "I know."

-

"Computer, show me the radiation detection software available for the drone fleet in VHDL." Raven ordered the computer she and Gabriella were leaning over in Becca's lab.

Gabriella's mouth hung open in awe as the information shown on the screen, "Becca was an absolute god. What the hell?"

"Ow." Raven's wince of pain made the blonde snap her gaze away from the computer and towards her, her face instantly flashing in concern.

She put a gentle hand on her shoulder with her eyebrows furrowed, "You alright?"

"Fine." Raven shook her head but Gabriella didn't have time to argue about the fact that there was clearly something wrong because of Abby's loud voice coming from the upper floor.

"We don't have time!" the doctor's outburst caused Jackson to freeze in front of her and made Gabriella's eyebrows shoot up in surprise.

She faintly heard the pair of doctors mutter something between each other but didn't care enough to listen and turned back to Raven instead to see that her eyes were squeezed shut.

She didn't look like she was in pain, more like she was trying to focus on something but couldn't. Gabriella's eyes widened in shock when the brunette fell back in her chair and started checking me.

"Abby!" Gabriella called, rushing to Raven's side but having no idea what she was supposed to do.

She isn't sure if she ever felt this frozen when a person she cared was in pain. Well, not since her mother's death anyway.

Jackson and Abby rushed downstairs, the latter informing her boyfriend's niece, "She's seizing."

"Ella, grab her neck." Jackson told her and Gabriella didn't hesitate to do what he told her to and grabbed her best friend by the back of her neck while the doctors slowly helped lower her to the floor.

"Okay. On her side, on her side." Abby instructed and Jackson nodded repeatedly.

"I got it. I got it."

"I have a reaper stick in my bag. Get it and hurry." Abby told Jackson, who rushed to get it, and then she turned to a wide eyed panicked Gabriella and gave her what was supposed to be an assuring nod, "She's gonna be fine, Sweetheart."

Gabriella didn't register her words, her eyes solemnly locked on Raven as red blood leaked through her lips and down her face 

Jackson rushed back to them and handed Abby the reaper stick, which she immediately took and placed it on the side of Raven's neck, "Hold her. I got her."

The second the stick connected with her skin, Raven let out a breath of relief although her eyes were still shut.

"You're okay." Gabriella sighed in relief while resting her forehead against the back of Raven's head, repeating the words a couple of times under her breath and only actually feeling relieved when Raven's eyes opened back up.

-

"El." Raven's tired voice made Gabriella's eyes snap away from the notebook in her hand and towards her.

She immediately moved her chair closer to her and put the notebook down, reaching to squeeze her hand, "Hey, Birdie. You got me worried for a second there."

Instead of frowning, Raven stared up at her with a dazed smile, "Ella, something happened."

"Yeah, no shit." Gabriella deadpanned but her voice didn't hold a sharp edge like it usually did, "You had a fucking seizure and almost gave me a heart attack. Abby said she was gonna do a brain scan on you or something when you wake up." she turned her head to look at Abby and Jackson who were working on something on the other side of the room, "She's awake."

"Seizure?" Raven repeated in shock and Gabriella's face softened even more as she squeezed her hand again while humming a quiet, "Yeah."

"No." the brunette gasped and sat up quickly, shaking her head, "No." she didn't spare Gabriella another glance as she rushed to get up from the bed, "It was like my brain was operating with such ── with such intensity. It was so real, like I was space-walking again, Zero G with no suit."

𝘡𝘦𝘳𝘰 𝘎 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘯𝘰 𝘴𝘶𝘪𝘵? 𝘕𝘰 𝘸𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘢 𝘴𝘦𝘪𝘻𝘶𝘳𝘦.

Seeing the concerned look the two doctors were wearing and confusion on Gabriella's face she said, "I'm not crazy."

"No one thinks you're crazy." Gabriella rushed to assure her but she didn't seem to be listening to her.

"Weightlessness." Raven muttered under her breath but they all still heard her loud and clear. She turned to Abby with wide eyes, "Abby, what happened when you tried to get the nightblood protein to bond with Luna's DNA?"

Surprised flashed across Abby's face before she responded, "The structure of the RNA fell apart. Why?"

Jackson huffed, "Abby, she just had a seizure."

"Because I think I know why Becca couldn't make it work in this lab." Raven said and turned towards the computer they were previously sitting next to, "Computer, show me prototype nightblood RNA binding in Zero G environment."

Gabriella blinked in surprise and tilted her head curiously when the big screen started showing a bunch of numbers and the two polynucleotide chains that built the DNA slowly started to show up.

"It would work." Abby voiced in amazement.

"𝘚𝘪𝘮𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘦." the computer spoke and Gabriella's eyebrows furrowed for a moment before she turned to Raven with clear confusion on her face.

"Your hallucination told you that?"

"Yes." Raven grinned at her, "When I imagined I was weightless, my neurons must have been firing faster than my conscious mind could process."

Jackson gaped at her, "Communicating through your subconscious."

"Exactly!" Raven nodded in excitement, still grinning brightly.

"How do we simulate zero gravity in a laboratory environment?"

"We can't." Gabriella deadpanned, "It's literally impossible. We have to like, go to space for that."

Raven looked around the lab for a few moments before turning back to them with a knowing smirk, "Exactly. ALIE said that Becca went to space looking for a more secure environment to get away from her but I don't think that was the reason at all. I think she went to space to make nightblood."

"Raven, how does that help us?" Abby shook her head in confusion, "It's not as though we can go back into space."

Raven raised an eyebrow, almost like the Griffin woman just offered her a challenge. And everyone knew Raven never backed away from one, "Wanna bet? Computer, opera interior blast and launch doors."

A clang was heard and a big pair of doors slided open to reveal a fucking ROCKET?

The four of them didn't hesitate to rush towards it, all of them gaping at it in both shock and surprise.

Raven climbed the stairs to get to it while Gabriella stared at both her and the rocket in amazement. Her shocked face was taken over by a small grin when her best friend turned to her with a small smirk.

"Who wants to go for a ride?"

-

"I've never seen anything like it. She's using a huge percentage of her brain." Abby explained to Gabriella and Jackson while Raven was working on the bottom floor and while she was ecstatic they ( well, Raven ) found the rocket, her concern for her best friend was way bigger.

Raven's excited voice made them snap their attention to her, "There's a flight simulator built into the rocket's software. Get this hair net off me so I can strap in and give her a whirl."

"Not yet, Raven." Abby scolded, "Keep doing what you're doing. This is important."

"Computer," Jackson started, wearing a stoic expression, "temporal view. Abby . . . "

"I see it." The dirty-blonde woman cut him off while Gabriella frowned in confusion.

"See what?"

Jackson gave her an almost sympathetic look and then looked back at Abby, "Ischemic or hemorrhagic?"

"We don't know if it's a stroke yet." Abby shook her head and walked away from the two.

"Then what is it?" Jackson called after her but she ignored him and walked down the stairs towards Raven.

Gabriella glared at the back of her head and then followed her downstairs. Raven greeted her with a smile on her face, her body full of energy she hasn't seen in her since before her leg injury.

"There's no fuel in the tank." she told them, "But we have plenty of hydrazine back in Arkadia. We can have it here in a day."

Abby gave her a hesitant nod and then put her hands on her shoulders, "Okay, Raven. I need you to slow down."

"Slow down?" Raven scoffed in disbelief, "You're kidding me right? Abby, we have a rocket! We have to go to space and make nightblood." she wrapped an arm around Gabriella's neck and gave her a sly grin, "It's a two-seater, by the way. What do you say, Ella? Just like old times. Sounds like a plan?"

Gabriella swallowed and pulled away from her. She put her hands on her shoulders and squeezed them while giving her a tight-lipped smile, "Look, Rae. I love you. But I can't keep up with everything you're saying and you need to calm down. You just had a seizure and your brain is probably exhausted by this point."

"Raven."

Said girl rolled her eyes towards Abby and gave her an impatient look, "What?"

"Heightened mental ability, hallucinations, euphoria, headaches;" Abby listed and let out a sigh, "It's all connected. ALIE warned you that the EMP would cause brain damage."

Realization flashed across Raven's face and she nodded to herself, "Jasper was right. That's why no one else got an upgrade."

Gabriella gave her a confused look and asked, "What are you talking about?"

"For everyone else, Clarke pulled the master kill switch." Raven started, her wide brown eyes piercing through Gabriella's blue ones as they both slowly started connecting the dots, "It's like shutting down a program the right way. When the EMP fried my chip, it was more like cutting the power from the OS while the ram was still full."

"Go on." Abby urged her.

"Part of ALIE's code is still in my head. That's why I know things I was never taught."

Gabriella blinked in realization, "Becca's mind was in that code. So a part of her mind is in your head and that's how you knew there was a rocket here."

"Yes." Raven nodded quickly, "And now we need to learn how to fly this thing."

She moved to walk towards the rocket, only for Abby to stop her, "Wait. Raven, your brain scan showed evidence of a stroke. I'm afraid that if you keep pushing like this, it's just gonna make things worse."

Raven gave her a weak shrug, "I've been through worse, Doc."

Abby shook her head with a deep frown, "Not worse than this. Raven, it could kill you."

The Reyes swallowed thickly and hesitated before asking, "Could or will?" when she didn't receive an answer she scoffed, "So, what? I survive long enough for everyone else to die? I can't do that, Abby. Even if it costs me my life. You have to let me go."

"No." Gabriella spoke immediately, not thinking about it for even a second, "I'm not losing you too. I can't ── " tears gathered in her eyes, "I can't lose you. You're my best friend."

"I have to do this." Raven told her and gave her a small sad smile, "You have to let me go, Ella. You'll be fine."

Will she though?

After losing so many people she doesn't think she could handle losing Raven out of all people.

She'd probably die before Praimfaya would even come.

a/n: bellamy's reaction in this episode when he realized octavia wasn't dead is the cutest fucking thing I've ever seen

this chapter is so fucking short I wrote it in on the 2 hour bus drive

what if this was secretly a raven fic all along? what then?