The Tributes from the Maze (Newt/OC)

It Was Not a Piece of Cake

Then Newt swiftly changed his aim and sent the bullet into the man's hand. Yelping loudly and clutching his injury close to his chest, Ariadne was able to grab him by the back of the head and brought his face down upon her knee. After he crumpled to the ground, she kicked him in the groin for good measure. Newt felt slightly sorry for the man as he watched him writhing around in the floor and moaning in pain. Then Ariadne took up a thick metal tray from the sideboard next to the desk and crashed it over his head. The man stopped moving. Ariadne blew out a breath of relief and pushed her fringe out of her face.

"Are you kidding me!? You never push the big red button! Never, don't you watch movies!? Well, I guess you don't, but still! Everyone knows never push the red button!" Ariadne fumed. Guilt was etched into every feature of Newt's face.

"I'm sorry, but I was stuck in a maze for three years. I just thought it stood out and I had no idea what button to press." Newt tried to defend his actions.

"Oh, you didn't see the huge white button in the middle of the desk labelled exactly what we need? You never press the red button! That would have set off every alarm this place has and shut the whole facility down! Our plan would have been ruined. You never push the big red button!" She started freaking out on him.

"Hey, calm down. I said I'm sorry, I didn't know!" Newt apologised. Why did he feel like he did something unforgivably wrong? He barely knew this girl and he had made an honest mistake. She shouldn't be grilling him like this.

Ariadne took in deep shaky breaths to calm herself before she felt collected enough to answer. "I'm sorry, it's just the fate of humanity rests in this plan. If it goes wrong...we're all doomed and then all of this was for nothing."

"I'm sorry too, I shouldn't I have been so careless. Are you okay?" Newt asked and lightly touched her arm. He winced, the adrenaline was wearing off and the bullet wound was starting to really hurt.

"I'm fine but you're not!" Ariadne exclaimed, her eyes wide. "What is that?" She asked and pulled up his shirt. Newt felt uncomfortable at this but strangely pleased that he had gotten her attention too.

"It's nothing, the bullet missed me, it's just a scrape." Newt shrugged, which caused him to wince again.

"Well, it obviously didn't miss you because you're bleeding pretty badly. We need to get you down to my office without leaving any blood. Put pressure on it." Ariadne took off her white coat and scrunched it up into a ball. She then took a roll of thick bandages from an emergency first aid kit in her mother's desk and pressed the coat against Newt's wound. She held her hand firmly against his stomach as she bandaged the coat to the wound tightly. Her fingers felt like ice against his inflamed flesh. Newt shivered, but it didn't have much to do with the temperature of her hand and more to do with the thrill that it pressed against his bare skin.

"What about him?" Newt asked and pointed to the unconscious worker on the floor.

"We're going to have to kill him. He's a close assistant of Janson's and we can't leave him alive." Ariadne said. "You should go out into the hallway. I'll do it. You've seen enough death." She said, her voice unwavering.

Newt could tell she was frightened but he was moved that she would do that for him. He could tell she was set in her decision from the lock of her jaw. So he nodded and waited out in the hallway, passing her the gun on his way out, hearing her flick the silencing switch.

Ariadne came out of the room and checked both ways up and down the corridor. She must have decided the coast was clear because she started leading him towards an elevator. Newt felt so out of place in an immaculate white elevator when he was covered in blood, dirt and sweat. Then he wondered how he smelt. Then he frowned. He'd never stopped to think about that before. The therapeutic elevator music was a big help to calm his nerves though. NOT!

Once they got to her office, Ariadne shut and locked the door. Dragging him over to the hospital bed, she instructed him to sit down. Working fast as a wildfire she raced around the room, collecting numerous tools and equipment with several bottles of liquids. Newt couldn't even begin to imagine what they were all for. She cleaned her hands with an antiseptic spray and pulled up his shirt. She tried to clean all the dirt, grime and blood from the bullet graze but every time she tried she had to drop the shirt. After about the fourth time she groaned in frustration.

"Would I be sounding creepy if I asked you to take your shirt off? For medical purposes." She asked awkwardly, a dusting of blush across her cheeks. Newt shook his head and did what she asked. Once all the old blood was gone it was easy for her to see where shards of bullet casing had embedded Newt's side. She took a pair of tweezers from the table and looked up at him.

"This is going to be uncomfortable. Just hold onto my shoulder and squeeze when you need to." She bent over and injected a numbing shot into the area around the wound.

Then she pushed one hand against his solid abdomen and dug into his side to get a good hold on the shard of metal. Newt took in a sharp breath of air at the invasive pressure and his hand flew to her shoulder, more for comfort than out of pain.

After some time, Ariadne pulled out the blood-caked shrapnel. She dropped it on the table and applied antiseptic before sticking a waterproof bandage patch over the affected area. When she was finished she stepped back to admire her work. Newt had to stop himself from squirming as her eyes travelled up and down his toned torso.

"You look like you could do with a shower. Wait ten minutes and then you can go just through that door. Wash up and I'll get you some new clothes." She said and left the room. Newt found himself smiling. How could one girl turn his life completely around in such a short amount of time?