atomic man, john murphy.

Exit Wounds

Back in Polis, Clove and Emilio sat in the rubble with the rain dampening their clothes. "We can go into the bunker," Clove offered, looking up at the dark sky.

"No," Emilio shook his head and smiled. "I missed the rain... I missed having any weather, really."

"Yeah. Me, too," Clove breathed out and mimicked his smile. "So... tell me everything."

Emilio shrugged. "I don't know what there is to tell. Six years was a long time to not be with you or Pa. I missed you guys a lot," He frowned as he spoke. "They all became family to me... but it wasn't the same." 

"So in all that time on the ring, there really wasn't any drama?" Clove raised her eyebrows. "You know I want the juicy stuff." 

Emilio chuckled and shook his head. "Well honestly, things didn't go great with Murphy for a few years," Emilio glanced at his sister and sighed. "At first, things were good. We actually got really close because of missing you and whatnot. But... I think that it eventually hit him how long it would be until he would see you again." Clove furrowed her eyebrows. "He ended up living in a separate part of the ring from the rest of us and closed himself off. I still tried to keep him company but I don't think he ever really stopped hurting." 

Clove was silent. Of course she never wanted Murphy to be hurting as much as Emilio said he was, but a small part of her couldn't help but be glad he didn't forget about her. "Oh," Clove finally settled on a short response. "Um... well, what about you? Must have been hard living so close to Monty and Harper for so long when you have feelings for-" 

Emilio's eyes widened and he slapped his hand over the girl's mouth. "Tell all of Polis about it, why don't you?" 

Clove twisted her face in disgust as she removed her brother's hand from her face. "Your hand is filthy," She whined. 

"Well, your whole... you is filthy," Emilio struggled to find a good response. 

"Your whole you," Clove mocked in a patronizing voice. "It's a good thing I'm not smothering you with my whole body then, isn't it?"

"Whatever," Emilio nudged her and they both laughed. 

The laughter slowly faded away and Clove cleared her throat. "I really can't explain to you how much I missed you." 

Emilio furrowed his eyebrows. "I'm not used to this Clove... You know, the one who actually tells you how she's feeling instead of covering it up with sarcasm. What happened to you down there?" His words were lighthearted, as if he was joking, but Clove could tell he really wanted to know.

"Too much," Clove muttered. "I don't know what's gonna happen with this war. I just wanted you to know how much you mean to me." 

"I know," Emilio nodded and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. "I know." 

Octavia came towards the siblings and cleared her throat. "Clove." 

The girl looked over and stood up quickly. "Be right back, Emilio," Clove glanced at her brother. "Then we'll go see papa again."

Her brother nodded, "I'm going to go find Monty and Harper until then." 

The two girls stepped into a secluded area. "Echo is going to defect when Diyoza's ship comes back and I've asked her to spy for me," Octavia informed her in a hushed voice. 

"No disrespect, Octavia, but you know you can't trust Echo," Clove responded. "She'll probably feed information to Diyoza and I have no doubt that she'll betray you." 

"You're right," Octavia shrugged, her voice low. "I can't trust her. That's why I want you to defect, too. Echo makes a single wrong move, you kill her."