i'm just jaded ┊ intro

[BELLAMY]

people that were close to bellamy would be able to realize that something was off, there was that spark missing from their eyes and the usually extroverted person had began to grow more reserved and timid as if she were walking on eggshells. she was still new to northstar district, having only been there a year, how were they to know the real gravity of the situation she had found herself in? when bella had decided to try and make a home here for flynn and herself, the last face she wanted to see was that of her estranged husband. her blood had ran cold when she heard donovan's voice for the first time since being in the district and it hasn't warmed up yet, she had practically always been on guard since they arrived, often losing nights of sleep as they would just sit there and watch flynn for some form of reassurance that he was still okay in the moment.

for the first few days, bellamy had stayed secluded in her the little home she had picked for her and her son, trying to keep her whereabouts unknown to don until he would show up on her doorstep one day to 'fix their relationship for flynn's sake'. it wasn't long before it was back to what she had tried to escape from - playing happy reunited family with a man that would replace warm embraces and sweet nothings with cold shoulders and cruel threats. she had felt stuck though, it was too late to plead her case because while she had been hiding out with flynn, donovan had been going around preaching that it was a miracle they had found their way back to him, that they had been separated months ago because of bandits and it wasn't because bellamy had decided to flee with their son in the middle of the night because he had been a danger to them.

even if it weren't for the fact that he had those first few initial days to spread his story, he had already resided in northstar district long before bellamy even had begun to imagine moving there. he had months to perfect his story of a worried husband and father, he had time to build solid foundations of trust and friendship with the other residents. even if she did decide to try and speak up, don had already made it clear his intentions of what would happen, threatening to lie and make up stories about how she was the real danger to flynn and get the others on his side so flynn would be taken from her. they couldn't let that happen - at least with going along with it they could still keep flynn by her side and make sure he was safe.

it took awhile, but after about a month of primarily staying in the house with her one year old, she started to slowly begin to try and get more familiar and friendly with the people in northstar district, going on walks and helping out the best she could, eventually even making friends and growing bonds with the other residents. it had been more tolerable this way, being able to be out of the house for the majority of the day and in the open view for multiple people throughout the day, she felt safe this way and it gave her some comfort to know that it meant there were more eyes on flynn as well. 

it was a nice spring day out, the seagulls flying around and making noise in the distance on the beach could be heard from where bellamy had been in the garden with some of the group's children gathered around little pots and gardening materials. she had been crouched down, flynn standing on his own between her legs with his little hands resting on her knees as he babbled nonsense in between giggles and squeals of excitement. "bella! look at this!" they heard finn chirp, holding the unrooted plant carefully in his hands. "wow, nice job, kiddo! now we just gotta get it into it's new home, right?" finn nodded eagerly, setting the plant down into the whole dug out in one of the pots they had prepared. bellamy watched as he started pushing the dirt over the flower's roots while she carefully adjusted flynn so that he was sitting on the ground with his toy before making her way over to the other child.

"you're doing perfect!" bellamy praised him. "you just gotta pack down the dirt a bit more now." she would lightly put her hand over his on the shovel, tapping the back of it on the soil around the plant to make sure the roots were safely tucked into the dirt. "there we go - beautiful, isn't it?" she smiled at the child, watching as they nodded eagerly. "i wanna do another one!" bellamy let out a chuckle at the enthusiasm, nodding her head along quickly. "go for it! you're a natural at this, bud." as she took a few steps away and crouched down beside flynn again, she ran her hand lightly over his head which made him giggle and look up at her.

[green.]

The pattern was well-aligned in his mind. Winifred, Amor, now Bellamy. All of the above associated with Donovan. Two out of three declared missing under suspicious circumstances and, if Vernon were to dubiously turn a blind eye for any longer, untrusting of his instincts, it was only time until Bellamy would go missing too. She would leave a young boy motherless and that struck a nerve.

Ever since Bellamy arrived in Northstar District, Vernon was suspicious. It had been no longer than a couple of days before Donovan began to flaunt the fact that he and Bellamy moved in together. It had turned out that the baby that Bellamy arrived with had been Don's and that they were glad to have been reunited after being separated by an attack initiated by bandits. The story lined up perfectly, but the look on Bellamy's face told a different story. A story that Green was desperate to read correctly.

Despite Donovan's honourable position in the midst of the District, lapping up the attention from women who cooed over the way he snuggled up to his infant son, doing charitable deeds to help out in any way he could, giving passersby the friendliest of smiles and waves to make them feel welcome, Green knew that Donovan was a snake in the grass. The only problem was that nobody would believe him if he were to do anything about it. But Vernon knew that he was an evil man, and it seemed only too convenient that the only person who had proof of Donovan's sinister endeavours had since gone missing. This man was a wicked mastermind, a filthy sociopath.

And so, to save face until he could gather enough plausible evidence to prove that Donovan was behind the disappearance of Winnie and Amor, the sick bastard who killed the District's stray cats, and the man that violated women in every way possible, Vernon would just observe. It appeared that Donovan was well aware of Vernon's suspicions, visibly putting on a show whenever he was in Green's presence. Of course, perhaps the tension could be cut with a knife whenever the two men were near one another. Nobody could understand what had happened between the two of them because neither would open up about it, but it wasn't like their noble leader Green to take such a strong dislike to someone.

Vernon had encouraged Arlo to help the other kids with gardening because in all of his time in the District, Arlo was yet to make any friends. Understandably, he had suffered a great amount of trauma in his short life and, as a result, was incredibly wary of strangers for it. Green would tell others that he was shy, but perhaps Arlo was actually just petrified. Hand resting on the top of Arlo's back, Green walked the boy towards the garden with the intention to stay nearby for moral support. That was until Green spotted Donovan waltz into the garden and straight towards Bellamy.

And so Green watched for a moment, frowning at the way Donovan tickled the top of Bellamy's head in some attempt at affection, but to Green it felt more like she was just a pet to him. ❝ Greenie? ❞ Arlo squeaked, his voice rattling Green out of his sceptical musings. ❝ Yeah, I'm sorry... Thought we left something at home. ❞ He was quick to lie before giving Arlo a comforting smile, trying his hardest not to let it falter.  ❝ Don't you worry, I'll be right beside you the whole time. ❞

Finally, Green walked into the garden, lowering his arms down to his sides as he gave Bellamy a closed-lip smile. He tried to not grimace as he heard Donovan already possessing her attention as he spoke, ❝ You just tell me what you want for dinner, Babe. I'll do anything for you. ❞ With a subtle judging look, Green raised his brows before releasing a long sigh. ❝ Right, Arlo. How about you ask Bella how you can help them. ❞ With a moment of hesitation, Arlo clasped his hands together nervously before wandering over towards Bellamy and asking, ❝ What can I do? ❞

In the meantime, he watched carefully as Don slowly strolled over to stand beside Green, Green perching his hands on his hips as he tried to avoid looking Don's way. ❝ Isn't this so nice? The kids are loving it, and don't get me started on how it's helping Bella get out of the house a little more. ❞ Green didn't even want Don to get started in the first place. He wanted to roll his eyes. ❝ She's got quite the green thumb so you're lucky to have her in the District now. Hell, I know I'm lucky to have my wife back. It is shit — sorry, I mean it sucks — to lose your family, but I suppose I shouldn't be telling you that as you already know what it's like. ❞ Subtle jabs, low blows. Donovan was clearly trying to provoke Green, urge him to lose his temper to make Green look like the bad guy in front of all of these kids.

❝ Yeah, Mick was a good guy. Shame he did what he did to himself- ❞ ❝ So how are you enjoying the District so far, Bella? ❞ Vernon swiftly interrupted Donovan before he could even trigger Green to react brashly, glancing at Arlo to wordlessly reassure him. Arlo looked over towards Donovan quietly before quickly blinking away, face somber and eyes glossy. ❝ It must be... overwhelming, I guess, to finally be reunited with your husband when you didn't think you'd see him again. I'm happy for the both of you. ❞ Green pointed out with a dull expression, avoiding Don's intent gaze before Donovan dominated the conversation once more.

❝ Weirdly enough, things are better than ever. I suppose it's the realisation that we will never lose each other again. I mean I know from experience how to avoid losing her now for starters. ❞ ❝ Oh, do you now? ❞ Vernon scoffed, only adding to the tension between the two men. Donovan gave Vernon a sneering smile, returning firmly, ❝ Yeah, and it's a reassurance that I will treasure forever. ❞ With a sharp exhalation through his nostrils, Green finally turned his head to look towards Don, giving him a short smile. ❝ I'm happy for you, Don. ❞ He still knew exactly what he did to Amor, and he despised him for that.

He could only imagine what Bellamy was going through.

[BELLAMY]

bellamy froze and for a brief moment the breath caught in her throat when don walked over and began to tickle the top of her head. she leaned away from the touch, quickly letting out a forced amused laugh to play along. without putting much thought into it, she had pulled flynn into her arms to hold him in a way to make herself more secure in the fact that he was safe. they knew that don probably wouldn't do anything in the view of others, but whenever he was around she couldn't help and feel on edge.

they cleared their throat and adjusted her hold on flynn so he was resting on her knee, wrapping her arm around his torso before using her free hand to finishing covering the roots of the flowers she had been working on herself. they could hear donovan going on about different things to them, nodding her head and making small sounds of agreement."anything sounds good to me... maybe -" her voice was dull as she spoke, not really interested in the conversation, but trying to give enough effort to keep him happy until she noticed greenie and arlo walked towards them and cut herself off, eager to accept the interruption. "oh, hey, you two!" she gave a little wave with their free hand.

"aw, sweet, you wanna help us out?" when he did a small nod back, bellamy gave him a soft smile. "great! the more the merrier -" she looked away towards the other kids and what they were working on as well as what else needed to be done. "so, it looks like we either need to get some of those vegetables harvested or we have some more flowers that need to be repotted, do either of those sound better to you?" when they looked back towards arlo the soft smiled remained on their face to try and make him feel more comfortable. after working with the kids for a few days at this point, she had come with the conclusion that giving them different options was the easiest way to keep them entertained, as well as the fact that she wanted to help the shy boy feel as comfortable as possible by having him be able to choose what to do.

once bella helped arlo get started on what he decided he wanted to work on, she stood up and held flynn on her hip, walking around the group of kids to look at their progress, but as she overheard donovan walk over and start up a conversation with vernon, she couldn't help and zone out, listening in as the two men spoke, crouching down to help one of the kids scoop one of the flowers out of their old planter.

"i mean i know from experience how to avoid losing her now for starters."

her heart sank at hearing this, dropping the shovel onto the cement ground in the process as she froze up. the loud noise made her quickly come back to, looking towards flynn to make sure the loud noise didn't upset him and then towards the kid who looked up at her confused. "i'm sorry, bowie. that was my bad." she apologized, forcing a tight-lipped smile as she reached down to pick up the shovel and hand it back to him.

fuck. they were really trapped this time, weren't they? they had lucked out with being able to slip away into the night the first time, but don knew better now. if the fact that he had shown up now to watch her wasn't enough, every other time she had left the house was the same. wherever bellamy went, he was there to watch her to make sure she wouldn't try and run off with their son again. they were stuck.

"there's a lot of produce that's ready to be harvested." bellamy blurted out towards greenie and don, standing back up to walk over towards them. luckily, greenie had been the one standing closest to her, so instead of walking to stand closer to don's side she stopped there. "probably enough to have a feast even." a small laugh followed what she said, clearing her throat as she looked towards greenie before towards the ground and then up to don hesitantly. "the vegetables and fruit have been growing really nicely. all the credit has to go to the kids, though - they've all got a real knack for this."