Octavia never imagined she would anticipate Shard's arrival, but she is. She grows impatient for the food and water she knows he will have with him. He might also bring news on the negotiations. She hopes her ransom or others' have been paid or will be paid soon. Her anxiousness makes her fidgety and distracts her from her aching and jittering body.

"She'll be comin' round the mountain when she comes!" Shard sings.

Hatchette expresses the irritation Octavia feels.

Shard comes with the covered platter. "Somebody want some food?" He moves the tray up and down.

Octavia doesn't say a thing but glues her eyes to the tray. They follow every movement of the tray.

"If those ain't puppy eyes, I don't know what is," Hatchette says.

Octavia doesn't have the will power to retort or react despite the sting she feels under her skin from the comment.

Shard chuckles. "Indeed-y. But before we get to the main course: an appetizer!"

Shard uncovers a bottle of water. Its plastic is tinted, but Octavia has a surprising lack of care. When Shard presents it through the bars, she hurries to the bottle and takes it from his hand. The water has the same, slight earthy taste the water she'd been drinking here has, but she did not mind it. As she drank, the water brought life back to the desert in her mouth. Sores and scratches smooth away. Some of the upset in her stomach settles. She continuously drinks, barely pausing for breaths. The bottle quickly empties.

"I thought you were gonna drown there for a minute," Shard says with a laugh as he reaches his hand through the bars to take the bottle back.

"Shame she didn't," Tam says.

Octavia jumps at the sound of her voice. She didn't notice Tam came with Shard. Being in the same vicinity of two women who terrify her rises tension in her muscles.

"Yup. Tam's back," Shard says.

Relief is visible in Marque's eyes.

"And I'll be taking Hatchette with me to go get you some food," Shard says. He pulls a couple bottles of water from somewhere in his jacket and hands one to Marque and another to Tam. "Don't let her drown herself, and don't contaminate the water." His last order is obviously directed at Tam.

"Come, come, Hatchette," Shard says as he walks away. She walks beside him.

Octavia wonders for a split second how Shard holds what he holds in his jacket but gets distracted with eyeing the water in the guards' possession and wonders when she'll get it and some food.

----------

"Don't ya think it's a little soon to let Tam be on Rhinehart, again?" Hatchette says to Shard as they walk.

"I do, but we need you," Shard says.

Hatchette puts her hands on her hips. "Negotiations kickin' asses now?"

"Yeah," Shard tells her without looking at her.

"I told y'all before that this venture was gonna be more than bargained for, but y'all out-voted me and said get all them brats, not just a few."

"Because once we figure this out, the pay will be greater. Our asses will come out sorer but better paid."

"And how's that figurin' workin' out?" Hatchette crosses her arms.

Shard scoffs. "You gotta always be right, don't you?"

"Yeah. 'Cuz I'm one of the closest minds to Dae-jun y'all got left."

Stolen novel; please report.

"Yeah. You are..." Dark chocolate blossoms form in Shard's eyes as his heart sinks. He shoves his hands in his jacket pockets and keeps his gaze to the ground.

Hatchette punches Shard in the arm. The force almost throws his balance, but he manages to catch himself. His eyes return to periwinkle.

Rubbing his arm where a bruise is inevitable, Shard shrugs his other shoulder. "What the hell, Hatchette?"

"Don't give me any of that pity party crap," she says. "Your father and others knew the risks from the beginnin' and made their own stupid choices that day. Dae-jun also probably didn't imagine himself dyin' in any other way, either, since he knew he'd probably never live to see the gov fall."

"He didn't know that. He could've. We've made progress."

"Progress under you. Progress Dae-jun would've never made. Granted, I don't like many choices you've made, but I can't deny the progress. You've got some pieces of Dae-jun's mind and pieces of everyone else's mind here but a mind that works as its own and like the gov's, too. One that can play their political games."

"I don't know if I should be flattered or not with you comparing my mind workings to that of the government's."

Hatchette punches Shard, again.

"Ow!" He holds his arm away from Hatchette. "Do you have to abuse my good arm?"

"You're ambidextrous," she says.

"Which means they're both my good arm, and I like having both work without pain." Shard rubs his arm. "I should've nicknamed you 'Meanie'. Meanie Minnie. It works."

The razors in Hatchette's frohawk glint like her eyes in the overhead hall lights as she turns her head to glare at Shard. Her hand rests on a hatchet handle.

"But Hatchette works." Shard speaks quickly. A nervous smile raises his eyes. "Well. Very well."

She smirks. "Yeah it does." Her smirk falls to puckered lips. "Why did you nickname Rhinehart?"

"It irritates the crap out of her," Shard says with a squinty smile. "And 'cuz she's gonna be around for a while. You know her ransom can't be paid overnight."

Hatchette nods but says, "I think you could speed up the process, though."

Shard shrugs. "Maybe. But taking time to think will allow for just that: time to think. Which will allow for a better payment than what we could get for her now or a faster process."

Hatchette nods. "I might just have to agree with ya on that."

"Well, be prepared to disagree with me, again."

The two stop in front of a metal door filled with dents and scratches. Behind it, voices can be heard getting louder and angrier. A few slams and crashes are heard.

Hatchette massages her brow. "You're right. I still don't agree with all the Grounders ya chose. What kind of group did ya put together?"

Shard's face lights up with pride. "The scary kind that people will listen to. "

"But won't listen to each other?"

"They do."

Another crash sounds.

"They're just very passionate," Shard says.

"If that's what ya call it," Hatchette says as she opens the door.

"I do, and I admire it." He follows behind her.

"Shard! Hatchette!" a person calls out.

The room falls silent. One person stops midway from throwing a chair across the room. Someone else sticks their head up from behind a newly constructed fort of filing cabinets. Across from the cabinet fort is an office desk on its side with the person who called them ducked behind it and waving at them. Another person stands in a corner and does not hide his unamusement. Others stand in the middle of the room or behind the cabinet fort. Papers and wood bits litter the floor.

"I have no idea how y'all have managed to make it this far," Hatchette says.

"Because of passion!" Shard gestures wide with both arms to the paused scene.

Raul steps out of the corner he had been standing in. The ruffles in his short, black hair show he had been running his fingers through it when he was still involved in the situation while it consisted of conversation, but it had digressed. His unamused expression remains unchanged.

"You're finally back," Raul says to Shard and Hatchette. "Maybe now we can get back to discussing how to handle these negotiations."

"Did you ever start?" Hatchette picks up a chair from behind the desk and sits.

"Somewhat," the desk person says. "We were messaging back and forth with the Politician Committee and had some deals settled until someone-"

"Don't get started with me, again!" chair guy says.

"You were the one to kinda start this," a person hidden in the fort says.

"So you wanna start with me?" chair guys says to the person.

Voices start rising once more until Hattchette throws a hatchet at the chair the guy is about to throw. The hatchet rips the chair from his hands. The chair clatters to the ground after nearly missing the fort. Hatchette gets up and takes her weapon out of the chair's wood.

"Y'all shut up, start from scratch, and, Raul, explain to me what went wrong," she barks while slashing the air and pointing with her hatchet.

"My pleasure," he says.