Getting Along
AO3
@hypatheticallyspeaking asked: “Harphy on the Ark?”
“McIntyre!” Murphy yelled.
It was silent for a few moment until Harper walked in.
“John,” she said, raising her eyebrows and crossing her arms.
“You’re supposed to clean the water filter after you use it,” Murphy said, waving the dirty filter at her.
“I know,” Harper said, “and I did.”
“Then why isn’t it clean?” Murphy asked.
“Someone must have used it after I cleaned it,” Harper said.
“Who would have done that?” Murphy accused.
“Maybe Echo or your girlfriend,” Harper said, gesticulating.
“I would know if it had been Emori,” Murphy said.
“Then Echo,” Harper said, “I don't know why we haven’t taught them how to clean it yet.”
“Ask Raven,” Murphy said, throwing up his arms.
There were footsteps down the hall, then Bellamy walked in.
“What are you two fighting about?” he asked sternly.
“Nothing,” Harper said, crossing her arms before turning and leaving.
“Bellamy watched her leave before turning back to Murphy.
“There are seven of us, it shouldn’t be this hard to get along,” he said before walking out as well, leaving Murphy to clean the water filter so he could use it.
Murphy was walking through the hallways, avoiding the control room at all costs. He had spent the last four hours in there helping Monty and Raven try to get everything working. Bellamy had been in and out, doing god knows what, and every time he came back into the control room, he and Raven had gotten into an argument about something or other. Murphy had finally decided to screw that, and he had left, mumbling some excuse about having to use the bathroom. He’d have to go back eventually, but he was going to avoid them for as long as possible. It wasn’t like it would be hard for them to find him; there wasn’t really anywhere for him to go.
He rounded a corner and saw Harper at the end of hall, staring at earth out the window. He walked over to her. She didn’t seem to notice him until he was a few feet away.
“Oh,” she said, glancing over at him, “hey Murphy.”
“Hey,” Murphy said.
Harper turned back to the window and Murphy did the same. It had been eight months since the world had gone up in flames, and it didn’t look much better eight months later than it had the day they had left.
They stared out the window in silence for a few minutes.
“Sometimes I wish I was down there,” Harper said quietly, breaking the silence.
Murphy looked over at her, but she kept her eyes on the Earth.
“In the bunker?” Murphy asked.
Harper shook her head.
“Oh,” Murphy breathed.
They drifted into silence again. Murphy kept glancing at Harper out of the corner of his eye, but she continued to stare at Earth.
“I don’t regret coming up here,” Harper said, “it’s just really hard sometimes.”
“I get that,” Murphy said.
Harper looked away from the window and shook her head.
“I should be getting back,” she said, gesturing vaguely, before turning and going back up the hallway.
After almost a year and a half in space, Raven, with the help of Monty and everyone else on the ark, managed to get everything in the control room working. They had on-board statistics, and all of the essential systems were being monitored automatically. There were blueprints, movies, and books. Most important of all, there was a radio.
Because they hadn’t had a radio, they hadn’t been able to get into contact with the ground. For all they knew, the seven of them were all that was left of the human race. They couldn’t think like that though, or else they would all go crazy, so they had all acted like the bunker, and everyone in it, was perfectly fine.
This was the moment of truth. If the group from the bunker hadn’t made it, they wouldn’t know for sure until they went back down to earth; but if someone responded to the track Raven had been looping over as many frequencies as she could manage, they would know that they weren’t alone in the universe.
That had been two years ago. Since then, almost nothing. They’d gotten jumbled up noise and snippets of conversations with unrecognizable voices, but nothing definitive. Still, the radio was monitored 24/7, just in case.
Ever since the control had been up and running and they had gotten access to the movies and tv shows that were still left in the ark’s database, they would put on a movie. They’d watched almost all of them, but they’d found some favourites that had already been rewatched.
Tonight they decided to rewatch a movie that Murphy had seen the first time, and didn’t think really deserved a second watch. Emori had loved it, so, with a quick goodbye, he had left the room that they had set up the projector in.
He wandered around a bit before heading into the control room, where he knew it was Harper’s turn to watch the radio. The two weren’t friends, exactly, but with only seven of them spending five years together, they were comfortable.
“Harper,” John greeted.
“John,” Harper said, looking up from the book that she had been reading. It was one of the few actual books still left on the Ark. She folded the edge of the page as she closed the book and set it down on the control panel. “I thought that you guys were watching a movie?”
“It wasn’t really my thing,” Murphy shrugged. “Anything here?”
“Same as always,” Harper looked over at the radio, “absolutely nothing.”
Murphy sat down on one of the stools down the row from Harper. “Where’s Monty?”
Harper shrugged. “He was here earlier, but I told him he didn’t have to keep me company,” she picked up her book, “I have this.”
“Would you rather I leave?” Murphy asked.
“No,” Harper said, “I don’t really mind either way.”
A couple of hours later Harper was reading her book again and Murphy was playing tetris on one of the tablets.
Suddenly, the radio started blaring static.
“....Hello……”
Murphy froze then looked up at Harper.
“Hello?”
Harper grabbed the transmitter.
“Hello?” she said, staring at Murphy.
“Oh my god,” the voice on the other side said.
“This is the ark,” Harper said, “who am I speaking to.”
“This is the bunker,” the voice said, “Octavia Blake.”
Harper almost dropped the transmitter. “Go get everyone!”
Murphy spang off his stool and sprinted down the hallways towards the projector room. By the time he got there they had heard him coming, and they were out of their seats and in the hallway.
“What’s wrong?” Bellamy asked
“We made contact with the bunker.”