Hope for Us (NEWT) [COMPLETED]

Ch 26 - They Know

~Newt~

He woke up the next day, feeling someone shaking his shoulder.

He'd slept all night beside the girl's bed. His shoulders, along with most of his upper body, were sore from the uncomfortable position of sitting all night, leaning over the bed.

"Newt, we need to have that Gathering now. Can't start it without you," Minho told him in a lowered voice. Newt wearily turned to look at his friend as if he didn't want to leave the girl's side. "She'll be fine, dude. Bet she'll be waiting for you safe and sound when we're done," Minho gave his best shot at comforting him.

Jeff had told Newt she was stable. Her own effort to breathe was clearly visible as her chest rose and fell evenly. The blanket covering her body crinkled in different patterns at the slight movement. 

His lips curved into a smile full of renown hope as he rose to his feet.

She'll be alright, he told himself.

With one last lingering gaze at her, he followed Minho out the door.

❀❀❀

Once every chair was occupied by its respective Keeper, Alby stood up, Newt beside him, and the Gathering began.

"As all of you may know, we're here today to discuss a clear violation of one of our Glade's rules," Alby spoke in a clear, stern voice.

Once all the attention was finally directed toward him, he continued. "Somebody beat the klunk out of that poor girl. Somebody took the time to plan this and think they could get away with it. Now, we can't know more until the girl wakes up, but I don't care how long that takes. We're gonna find whoever the shuck did it."

Alby then took a seat and drove their attention to the Second-in-Command. The blond boy slowly rose from his chair, clearing his throat.

"Keepers, you'll interrogate anyone who you find suspicious from your own group," he said. "Report them to Alby, or to myself, and we'll question every one of them until the bloody truth comes out."

Gally immediately stood up, almost knocking his chair over as he protested. "Why should we care about what happens to that shuck girl anyway? She was already acting suspicious, so why bother finding a culprit? We're wasting the energy of our Med-jacks to cure her. She's better off dead. Why don't we just let the turn of events take its course?"

Newt's face reddened as he balled his hands into fists. "She's a bloody Glader like the rest of us," he growled. "Anyone here would do anything to save the life of a fellow Glader."

Gally laughed hoarsely as if mocking Newt. "Glader? That shank isn't one of us, and I don't give a klunk about what happens to her. I'm not gonna make myself responsible, and I'm not gonna question any of my Builders on the matter."

Alby held his hand up to interject and stood up. "With this attitude of yours, shuck-face, I'm assuming ya wanna take part in the list of suspects, am I right?"

"No," Gally scoffed. "What is this? A one-sided family meeting?" He stretched his arms out wide.

Newt snapped. "If you're not a suspect, then you shouldn't have any problems cooperating, you buggin' shank," he muttered. "And if we were biased, you well bloody know that we'd make a decision without a Gathering, or even without you. All of your opinions matter!"

"Shut your shuck-face, Newt! We all know you're to blame for all this!" Gally yelled, pointing at him accusingly.

Newt furrowed his eyebrows at him. "How is this my fault? If anything, I'm the one who wants to find out who did this—and more importantly—that Sara recovers."

Gally spread his hands out matter-of-factly, staring back at the older boy with an amused expression. "That's exactly what I'm talking about, shank. I still think that girl's dangerous, and I guarantee you, a lot of the others agree with me. You're the one always making stupid decisions because of her. We don't want her here. She screwed with your brain, man. Why don't you explain that?"

Newt's breath hitched in his throat, and a blush he desperately tried to hide still made its way to his face. That didn't go unnoticed by Gally, or by any of the other Keepers in the room.

"Um... that's not—"

"What was that? I don't think I heard you well," the Keeper of the Builders sneered at him, cupping his own ear. "Wait—oh, what's this—does the mighty Second-in-Command have a little crush on the lady shank?" Several gasps echoed across the room, followed by muffled laughter among a few Gladers.

Newt suddenly lost it, lurching forward to grab Gally by the collar of his shirt. "I don't care about anything you have to say about me! She hasn't done anything to anyone, and a lot of you saying she's dangerous is pathetic. She almost died! And right now—right this bloody instant—she's fighting for her life! I won't allow your sick judgement influence how we approach this, so if you don't shut your hole right now, you can bloody go ahead and leave," the blond boy muttered, harshly letting go of Gally's shirt.

"Newt, I need you to slim down," Alby added as he pulled Newt back by the arm. Newt was breathing heavily, and he gave the leader a helpless look before settling down.

Many others had their say at the Gathering. Every Keeper except for Zart, Frypan, and Minho, sided with Gally. Alby tried to be more objective, but he still disagreed with Gally's opinions for Newt's sake.

"Can I leave now? I mean, we're not getting shucking anywhere with this stupid meeting," Minho randomly blurted.

Out of despair, Newt was ready to propose a deal. "Let's wait until Sara wakes up, have her tell us what happened, like Alby said, and we'll go from there. Does that sound fair?"

"It's always about her, huh?" Gally once again butted in. "Who cares if she was attacked—whoever did it probably had a good reason. They did us all a favor. But you, Newt, you're such an ungrateful shank. What're you gonna do now, cry over her dying body? Break down 'cause your little girlfriend is leaving you?" Newt said nothing, so Gally continued. "Shuck, man. So you two really are a thing, huh? Didn't think you'd aim so low. Still, I always thought you were klunk as Second-in-Command. You're just proving me right. How disappointing," said Gally, shaking his head, and belittling Newt with his glare.

"What am I gonna do? I'll teach you how to respect her!" Newt turned on him again. The chatter and arguments among the others broke out, and Alby had to practically scream at them to shut up. Frypan and Winston had to hold Gally back as Minho and Alby did the same with Newt; all trying to keep the two boys from attacking each other.

With Sara's unchanging critical condition, and the current tension among the Keepers about the attack, the Council couldn't come to a consensus.

Ultimately, as the hostility slowly died down, Gally and the others decided they'd wait for her to let out her last breath, while the few others that opposed that group were hoping for a miracle.

Newt was devastated.

He was forced to stretch between being worried sick for the girl he cared for, making those who attacked her pay for what they'd done, to being mocked by the majority of the Glade.

Yet Newt couldn't care any less about himself—never really felt any fear for himself; not even in this situation. However, he now had someone to worry about, and the thought of losing her in addition to the constant hate she received, was too much for him. It didn't help that only a few Gladers supported him, and the endless waiting was unbearable.

For the next few days, again, he was found by Sara's side, speaking to her, hoping she could sense his presence even if she couldn't hear or see him. He took hold of her hand, kissed it, and leaned in to kiss her forehead as well.

He promised her that they were gonna find the culprits, and that they'd get banished. He also took the opportunity to express his fears to her as he would never let anyone else know. And he urged her to fight for her life, although he did it mostly to reassure himself that she would come back to him.