Prompt: You want to help Thomas and Newt rescue Minho from WICKED, but Gally seems to try everything he can to stop you, and you can't help but feel that there's something else under the surface...
WARNING: Contains major spoilers for The Death Cure. You've been warned.
A/N: I decided to follow the structure of how these scenes went in the film, but obviously wrote in some differences – like completely different dialogue and conversation. I'm sorry if it's too much of an insert yourself into the movie, but this was what was requested, so I tried to make it as engaging as possible. I hope you all enjoy!
This one shot is also much longer compared to the others, just a heads up!
"Fine, we'll rescue Minho from WICKED." Gally eyes Thomas and Newt almost suspiciously, not trusting them entirely yet. Then they shift to yours, a look of sudden defiance and certainty in his eyes, "But there's no way in hell you're bringing her along."
You immediately roll your eyes, a sudden de ja vu crossing your memory, "There's noway in hell you can put conditions on this Gally, and there's no way in hell you can tell me where I can go and where I can't!" You frown, creating the most angry glare you can, but his piercing green eyes only glare back.
Gally crosses his arms over his chest, and huffs carelessly, "Then I'm not helping you rescue Minho."
Thomas shakes his head, and Newt only sighs. They glance at one another and realise they're both remembering back to the Glade, the arguing and constant fighting that went between you and Gally...
"Gally, we're not in the Maze anymore! You can't just put restrictions on me—
"Exactly!" Gally says, almost accidentally. You don't understand what he means by that, but you ignore his confusing reply and open your mouth to fire back, but Thomas shuts you up immediately with a stern look.
He relaxes his blue eyes and his voice turns to reasoning, "Look, Y/N, if this is what we have to do—
"Thomas!" You interject, almost dumbfounded that he would even consider agreeing with Gally's ridiculous request.
"Y/N." Thomas says impatiently, "We need Gally with us so we can help Minho." He turns to Gally, "She won't come with us."
Your jaw drops, "There's no way I'm staying behind—
But the boys simply ignore your arguing and shake on it before going to make arrangements with Gally's group leader. You fall into a chair and let out a quiet groan of frustration, "Fine. Leave me behind." You put your head into your hands as sudden memories of the Glade flood back. Gally was always like this with you, of course almost dying and reuniting in the Scorch wouldn't change that; he's always been stubborn in his ways. He just can't get along with you that badly, that you can't help both him and your friends?
You sigh, leaning now only on one hand. Some things just never change.
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You watch them like a disappointed puppy as they prepare themselves to leave for the city. Gally, Newt and Thomas make sure their equipment and other things they have packed for the first, supposedly-quick trip are all working well. You watch as Thomas packs two backpacks, and you wonder who else is going with them, and cast a glare at Gally with every chance you can get.
Gally ignores your glares, something he managed to master within the Glade... in the first month of you being there. He slips his bag onto his back and ties his combat boot shoelaces up tightly, "So, who else is coming with us?" He says this somewhat suspiciously, staring at the extra backpack as if he was only prepared to go with Newt and Thomas.
"Well," Thomas says quite matter-of-factly, "I thought that since we're only going into the city to, I assume, scope WICKED's HQ out and figure out a plan to rescue Minho, Y/N can tag along." You see the quick smile that forms on Thomas' lips as he chucks the extra backpack towards you.
As you catch the bag, Gally frowns immediately, "What about your promise? We shook on it!"
"Gally," Thomas says, shaking his head, "I don't follow your rules. As you know, I never did." He smiles again, somewhat innocently, and you quietly slip the bag's straps over your shoulders and ignore the heated stares at the back of your head as you walk with Newt towards the tunnels. "Besides," Thomas calls back to him as you all make your way towards the city, "We're not even rescuing Minho yet, so technically—
"Technically," Gally cuts in through gritted teeth, frustration steaming off him like fumes, "I don't care," he finishes with his famous, Gally growl. But he mutters something else under his breath, something like, better not get hurt, but you don't quite catch everything he says.
"Something else you wanted to say, Gally?" You ask, as you turn your head to look behind you. He makes eye contact, but you notice his tightly set jaw and the irritation reflecting back in his angry eyes and decide to stop pushing it, for now. At least until he calms down again.
When you enter the city, you're overwhelmed by lights and noise and... something else. A nagging, echoing feeling in the back of your head, something like similarity. These buildings, these paved streets and lights—like you've seen them before, but you still cannot conjure up any memories from Before. And you know you won't ever be able to.
You glance over at Gally; he waits patiently for the rest of you to be ready to walk through the streets, like you "belong". The grey hoodie he wears keeps his tall, muscular figure dark in the night. Before you left, you pulled on one of his hoodies too as you didn't have anything dark enough to wear. Gally was reluctant, but he knew he had no choice but to let you wear it, for the safety of everyone.
"You shanks ready?" Gally's Glade talk seems so unfitting now, after everything you've all been through, and he realizes that too. "We've got a bit of walking... or running to do. And we need to try and not be seen as much as possible."
You all nod in agreement, even though personally, you're not entirely ready for this at all.
"Keep close to me at all times," and with this next sequence of words, he directs his attention to you, "That means you, especially. Keep up, or we'll leave you behind."
You bite the inside of your cheek, so you don't say anything nasty back, right now you just need to be on good terms with Gally for this to work, otherwise... something bad will probably happen, if you're not working together and that's the last thing you want.
You all set off down the street, running through the less populated areas and hiding in the shadows whenever possible. You reach the corner of a street with dimly lit stores that look closed off when sudden blaring, loud sirens echo through the chilled air. The hair on the back of your neck stands up at the sound, and again, the nagging feeling from before, but all of that fizzles away as Gally grabs onto your arm and pulls you closer to him and the wall that you four lean against as you watch colourful lights flash by on some sort of vehicle, the siren louder than ever. Gally's hand doesn't leave your arm. Mere seconds pass before the noise begins to fade away, and only now do you realise how close you are to him.
You shake Gally off of you and whisper, "You don't need to baby me, I can handle myself." You're usually quite aggressive with Gally, but you feel you may have acted out this time for no reason. Maybe it was the way he pulled you close to him as soon as danger arose. Maybe it was the weird feeling you got when his hand touched your arm.
You see Gally's jaw clench, and you conclude that he's holding back on what he really wants to say to you, "Whatever."
As the sirens completely disappear into the night, Gally leads on, and this time you make your speed impossible to not notice, by running right beside the slinthead. He notices, alright, and only increases his current speed to be a few steps faster.
Out of breath and puffing heavily you say as loudly as you can without alarming anybody, "Are you trying to race me?"
"I thought you were trying to race me."
You shake your head and ignore the weird glances you're getting from Newt, "Too bad I don't know where we're going, otherwise I'd beat your shank-ass there and back, in no time."
Gally huffs, "Sure, Y/N..."
"I totally would!"
Thomas pipes up, as you expected sooner or later, "Guys, sh." He pauses and sneaks a glance over at Newt, and on lesser judgment decides to keep speaking, "I'm faster than both of you, so I win." He earns the look he knew he would receive from Newt in milliseconds, a kind of look that says are you kidding me? But he ignores it and continues on talking, "Now Gally, get us where we need to be, and Y/N, stop talking."
You shut up indeed, although you still try to keep your pace as matched to Gally's as possible.
You finally reach a dark, tall building, still in an unpopulated area. Gally halts in front of the wall and leans against it, cupping his hands in front of him as he indicates to giving you all a lift up. Newt goes first without too much of a struggle. You stop and eye Gally before your turn.
Gally rolls his eyes, "I'm not going to drop you."
Your hands touch your hips, "You better not."
"Just get up this wall before I grab you around the waist and throw you up there myself." His voice comes out close to a growl, but his somewhat amused eyes tell you otherwise, and again; you're confused, but instead of trying to figure him out, you just laugh at him sarcastically.
"Ha. Ha."
You place your foot into his hands, and brace yourself by holding onto each of his shoulders. You avert your eyes from his, not wanting him to have an awkward realization of how close in proximity you are to him. He must realise your avoidance, because after a few seconds of staring at you, he asks you quietly, "Ready?" You nod in reply, and he carefully lifts you up and you quickly scramble up the wall, Newt helping to pull you up on the way, eager to get out of Gally's grip... eager to not be so close to him.
As you wait for Thomas and Gally to climb the wall, you lean your back against the building, trying to calm your heart's racing pace. You're not afraid of heights, so it must be something else. Gally's face flashes in your mind, and you remember how it felt to touch him, and for him to touch you, and to smell his scent again like back in the Maze... and you immediately push those thoughts out of your head. Don't be stupid. You thought those... feelings were locked away with the Maze.
"You alright?" Gally asks, crouched in front of you. His sudden nearness to you again almost overwhelming. You try not to frown (but you're pretty sure you do) and push past him as you stand up, ignoring his question.
He clenches his jaw again, probably out of frustration with you, as always, and walks past you to lead the way up the stairs to the next level. When you're all beside him behind the railing, he points out WICKED's building, "There. That's where they're keeping Minho."
Thomas stares at the building, "You're sure?"
"Positive." Gally opens his bag and pulls out some sort of object, you're not too sure what it is in this darkness and sets it up on the railing; peeping through it towards the building. "Look through here to see into the building."
Newt raises his eyebrows, "Why do we have to look in from so far away?"
As Thomas peers through, Gally explains how there's just too much security on the place. "If we went any closer, it would be too risky. They're high-tech and don't like having anyone on the 'outs' seeing what they're up to."
"So," you start, staring at the tall and very white-lighted building, "How do we get inside?"
Gally swallows, and you notice his nervous tic of scratching the back of his neck, "Not we..." He gestures to himself and just the boys, leaving you out, "Us."
Thomas looks up at him, "Gally..."
"She," his eyes rest on yours for a moment, "Is not coming with us."
You open your mouth to argue back but Thomas cuts in quickly, already knowing that the best way to stop your arguments with Gally is by interrupting it before it can even begin. "We'll talk about it later," his blue eyes, now dark in the night, telling you to slim it. He repeats your question back to Gally, "How are we going to get inside?"
Gally moves his contraption slightly, "Have a look."
Thomas pulls back immediately after only two seconds of looking through the scope; frowning, and confused. You eye Newt, who, after peeking himself, mouths the word Teresa. You keep your mouth shut, deciding that Gally's on very thin ice and you shouldn't join him.
Gally shrugs at Thomas and ignores his hateful looks, "I said I was going to get you in there... I never said you would like it."
Thomas looks through the scope again and mutters, "Well that's just fantastic."
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You stay out of the discussion, or more like, the interrogation of Teresa. It's too weird for you to see her on the other side, on the enemy's side, and for everyone to treat her like a prisoner. So, you keep your mouth shut, surprisingly, and try not to flinch too much when Gally starts to get aggressive in his demeanour.
Teresa agrees to help, after their interesting persuasive techniques, and they quickly and effectively decide on a plan to rescue Minho. You stay around, although you're not too sure on how high your chances are on being included in said plan. Gally keeps reminding you with looks that you're not a part of this rescue mission anymore, and it only frustrates you even further, especially since Thomas shuts you up every time you try to bargain with him.
"Alright, we have to head off soon if we're going to get this done." Thomas glances around at everyone involved in the room, "We're going to do this. And I'm glad for all of your help and support." He gives side-eye to Gally before speaking up again, "Which is why, Gally, I need Y/N to come with us. She's been here from the beginning, and I need all the help I can—
"No." His voice is flat, but firm, with stern eyes that only accentuate his decision.
You shake your head, standing up from the chair that you've been sitting since you got back, "Look, Gally, I don't know what your deal is with me, but surely you can leave that in the past?"
He doesn't respond, and that immature act only pisses you off.
"Thomas needs me, so I'm going. I'm sorry if I piss you off so much that you can't even try to work with me—
Gally's green eyes leave the ground and find yours in an instant, the stern firmness back again. "You don't piss me off, Y/N."
Again, confusion engulfs you; like it never even left. What is it with this boy? "Then why won't you let me help?"
He stares at you without a single word, and honestly, it terrifies you, but not entirely. He doesn't scare you, but what's behind those eyes do, whatever emotion it is that he has in this single moment is something so unknown to you that you can't help but feel afraid.
Finally, after consideration and silence between you two, he turns to Thomas, "She can come if she's with me."
"What?" You say, instead of heated and frustrated, you're practically dumbfounded and definitely not grasping why Gally is behaving this way. You thought he didn't want you to come because he couldn't stand you, like in the Glade, it seemed as though he tried to avoid you or keep rules and restrictions on you in the Glade as much as possible – you thought it was because he didn't like you. So why ask to keep you by his side?
Thomas raises an eyebrow at the both of you, obviously just as confused as you are, and turns to Newt for some sort of reassurance. When Newt nods, betraying you, Thomas glances at you for only a second before turning back to Gally, "Fine. She's with you, if you can handle that."
You roll your eyes but slip your backpack back on again. The others head off to wherever it is they need to be, and Gally immediately orders you to follow him. When you're both alone, on your way back inside the city, you find some courage buried beneath you to speak up, "So, are you going to let me in on why you're acting this way?"
"Maybe later."
Well, you think to yourself with a mental shrug, at least he replied this time.
Gally signals to you that Teresa, Thomas and Newt have all passed the scanners and are inside the building, and that they're just about to pass by you both. You follow Gally into the building and come out on the other side just as the other three walk through the hallway. Gally leads the way and you take up the rear of the group, your anxiety through the roof, fearing that somebody will realise that you're not even a real WICKED soldier in this uniform. It's easy for the boys, especially Gally, their manly figures and Gally's muscular build and extreme tallness certainly give off the feeling of a true soldier... you on the other hand... let's just say you try to extend your tallness at all times by straightening your back; like that would do much of anything.
You reach the room, where Minho is supposed to be inside, in a matter of minutes, after Gally secures the path. As soon as they push the doors open, the boys attack the other guards with the stun guns, and immediately all sorts of gunfire breaks loose.
You hide outside the room and shoot at the WICKED guards whenever you see an opening, careful to not hit any of your friends. Gally glances back at you and moves in front of your view. "What are you—
"Making sure you don't die." He shoots the last guard and leads the rest of the group inside the room. Newt and Thomas open the doors to the familiar WICKED "cells" that they keep the Munies in, like you when you were captured after the escaping the Maze.
Gally sets down his equipment in front of the vault full of WICKED's serum and immediately begins preparing to open the steel, heavy doors.
Thomas, who realised Minho's absence from his room, finds where he's kept now instead and orders Teresa to escort him and Newt there. You go to follow them, but Gally grabs a hold of your arm, "With me, remember?"
You sigh and watch the others leave as you take a seat on the floor near Gally and the vault; taking off your helmet. "Anything I can do to help?"
"Nope."
You cross your arms over your chest, "So, you allowed me to come only because if I'm paired with you, I don't actually have to do a whole lot."
"Yep."
"Slinthead."
He smiles at the use of Glade slang, "I've been waiting for you to call me that again."
You chuckle at his amusement over this, "Well I'm sure I'll use it a lot more." You watch as he almost finishes with his preparation to open the vault, "Gally?"
"Hm?"
"Could now be the 'maybe later' time that you mentioned earlier?"
He smiles again, and it reminds you of how you felt when he protected you from the sirens, touched you when helping you up the wall... protecting you from the guards. "Nope."
"Fine." You lift yourself up from your position on the floor and make your way over to the immune children, who've quietly and comfortably situated themselves in a group on together near the front of the room. You sit at the front of the group, and notice that they all watch you, silently. "Guess I'll just have to babysit, for now," you mutter, but Gally hears you loud and clear.
"Guess so."
You can't help but notice the twinge of amusement in his voice.
One of the kids speaks up, eyeing you suspiciously, "Who are you guys?"
You swallow, almost in disbelief of how young they are. You're not sure if they're just randomly collected Munies, or if they experienced the Maze too, so you stick with the simplest route. "We were prisoners of WICKED too." And that seems to be enough to satisfy them, as terrified glances and fearful eyes turn to trusting ones.
You continue to try and keep the kids as calm as possible while Gally works, constantly checking security and keeping an ear out for anymore guards. You tell the children stories, anything you can think of, and not only do they laugh but they ask for more... Gally sneaks a glance at you, and you kind of hate that you're actually happy to be here with him keeping these children entertained.
"Alright!" Gally opens the vault doors the rest of the way, and you help him pack the bag that's going straight to his group's leader. Once everything is ready to go, he passes the bag of the serum to a kid, and shouts for everyone to follow him—which brings you all to the next stage of the plan: boarding the bus and getting the hell out of here.
You, again, guard the back of the group as he continues to lead you all through the building towards the ground level, where Brenda should be ready and waiting to drive you all out of the city. After turning another corner, you hear footsteps echo behind you, and as you glance back, gun fire immediately engulfs the hallway and echoes throughout that part of the building.
You stumble, as the stun gun narrowly misses their target: you. You shoot at the lone soldier, hitting his foot, and suddenly Gally is by your side, and not missing his target. He grabs your shoulder, his eyes intense and full to the brim of worry, "Are you alright? Did he hit you?"
"Gally, I'm fine." You gesture to yourself, showing no obvious wounds, "I'm okay."
His emotional panic dies down as quick as it came about and takes the lead again but making sure to glance back at you every couple of minutes.
Once you finally reach ground level, Brenda's truck screeches around the corner and brakes right on time for the kids to load onto the vehicle. You double check the amount of them, counting as they go onto the bus, while Brenda and Gally talk anxiously about Thomas' unknown whereabouts. You try to ignore that, hoping nothing terrible happened to the others, and continue counting.
You reach the number you had in your head from the first time and walk over to Gally and Brenda.
Gally gestures for you to get onto the bus too, so you jog up the steps, but when you notice that he doesn't follow you, you pause. "You're not coming?"
"I have to find Thomas." He breathes, the intense look back in his eyes, and something else that you can't quite place. "You have to go with Brenda."
You glance over at Brenda as she takes her seat back in the driver's chair, and then at the bus full of kids, and then finally back to Gally. Suddenly you realise something, you don't want to leave him – you can't leave him.
You hop off the bus just as Brenda tries to close the doors, and they shut behind you.
"Get on the bus, Y/N." His voice is stern, but his eyes are kind, and only now are you realising the caring and protective side to Gally that you never understood before all of this. In the Maze, you just thought he was grumpy, that he didn't like you, that he wanted to control you, but now you realise he's only ever wanted to protect you and keep you safe.
"No." You keep your eyes on him, and shaking your head you remind him, "I came on this mission on one condition, didn't I?"
"Y/–
"To stick with you at all times." You take a step closer to him, and looking up at him you say, "I'm not going anywhere without you."
He hides the smile on his lips, but his happy eyes betray him all too quickly, "Fine." He tells Brenda to wait for you both to find the others and takes your hand in his as you both run to find Thomas.
When you both have your helmets back on to keep you out of suspicion, his hand lets go of yours as you round a corner that holds a nearby group of guards, and you quickly start to feel unsafe without the reassurance that was brought by him holding your hand.
"Just follow my lead and don't speak," he murmurs quietly, confidently holding himself as he walks closer to them.
You nod slightly and do as he says: follow his lead. One of the guards waves you both down, his neat, cropped hair close to his face and a stern, distrustful look in his eyes.
"You two, where are you going?"
"We're needed out the front of the building, where the gunfire came from."
But the guard doesn't seem content with his answer, in fact, he indicates for you both to remove your helmets almost immediately. As you feel Gally start to panic, and as your thoughts race to find a quick solution, out of the corner of your eye you spot some of the guards with their hands hovering over their guns; their fingers closing over the handle—
You take your own weapon out of its holster in the uniform's belt and open fire on the guards. Gally pushes back behind the corner's wall and fires too, and soon, most of the guards are down and no longer a threat.
You imagine Gally's enraged green eyes underneath the helmet, "What the hell did you think you were doing?"
"I- I don't know Gally, they were going for their guns—
His voice still gruff but something endearing and caring lingers within, "You could have gotten hurt."
"But I didn't..." You sigh, "Thanks to you, I didn't." You put your gun away, "Thank you, Gally."
He doesn't respond, and even though you can't properly see his face under the thick, black helmet, you can tell he's taken aback. You can tell that he's surprised.
"Look," You start, as you take off your helmet, brushing your ponytail off from your shoulder, "I misunderstood you. I'm sorry."
"Don't be..." He also takes off his helmet, blinking out of surprise, "Don't be sorry." His hand finds your shoulder, and you're not as surprised as you would have been hours earlier for finding comfort from his touch, again. "I'm the one who's probably constantly confusing."
You laugh, nodding your head, "I can agree with that." You take a moment's pause before speaking again, "but why did you..." all of a sudden, it seems to make sense in your head, but you're not sure if you should believe it unless Gally tells you to your face.
He see's your mini-realisation and smiles, "I've never wanted to see you get hurt, Y/N, so that's why I wanted you to stay out of this mission. And why I wanted you under my watch, because I know I can protect you. I did it in the Maze and I'll keep on doing it."
"Really?"
He nods, "Really."
Suddenly, more gunfire breaks out at the end of the hallway, and you're both quickly swept back into reality. You put your helmets on once more and follow Gally to the commotion, all the while smiling happily under your helmet.
You spot Thomas and Newt... and Minho in the pool of water, you look up at the window on the side of the building and see it cracked, or more like, smashed right open, shards of glass still falling around them in the rippling water.
Other soldiers join you, and you freeze rigidly, anxious about what you and Gally should do next. But apparently that doesn't need an answer, as Gally immediately takes the rest of the WICKED soldiers out, confusing the three boys in the water below.
Gally takes his helmet off and you follow suit, and the other boys' eyes open wide as they realise you're on their side. They come out of the pool of water, and you hug them all, especially Minho, who hugs you tightly as a much needed 'hello'. Gally then signals for everyone to follow him, and it's back to running, except this time out of the WICKED building for good.
You all realise that Brenda is long gone as you collapse behind a pillar within the city, somewhere. You sit between Minho and Gally, puffing from the overwhelming exercise and stress, it suddenly starts taking a toll on your body as you feel aching muscles and exhaustion begin to settle.
All the while, there's almost deafening gunfire and practically all out warfare going on in the streets, between WICKED and the rebels.
A loud crack echoes through the air and you flinch, your hand reaching for Gally's, who notices your distress and grabs a hold of your hand in his. You look up at him beside you, searching his eyes, he nods reassuringly and whispers, "It's going to be okay."
"What if we don't get out of the city?"
"We will, we have to. The rebels came in through opening up one of the city's walls, we can get through there."
"No," Thomas says, shaking his head, "We can't."
You squeeze Gally's hand, and he says, "Why not?"
"Too far away and..." He gestures to Newt's unfortunate state, coughing and wheezing, his eyes changing, his breathing rapid and heavy, "we're just not going to make it."
Minho check's Newt over, asking if he's okay, and you only barely bite back tears. You've all seen Cranks before, and the idea of Newt becoming one is just... terrifying... and doesn't make any sense. Minho looks to Thomas, "What about Brenda's Berg?"
"I don't know where—
Just as Thomas begins to answer, a giant, flying Berg passes you all overhead, and your eyes spot the vehicle landing not too far from here.
"The serum, it's in a bag, I gave it to one of the kids." Gally says quickly, almost like he's thinking too fast for his brain, "if we get to the Berg and grab a vial, we can bring it back for Newt."
Minho nods along with Gally, "Yeah, yeah, that'll work, won't it Thomas?"
Thomas nods, and before Newt can protest, Minho and Gally are up in seconds. Gally's hand, still on yours, brings you along with him, and he quickly shouts, "Shoot at anyone who looks like they're going to attack us. Minho has to run, and we have got to cover him, okay?"
"Okay!"
You run down the street, stumbling over debris and ducking whenever Gally shouts for you to duck. You shoot multiple times, mostly at those who look like they're from WICKED, and you constantly keep an eye on Minho as he runs out in front. You increase your speed so you're not dragging behind, but the exhaustion that began to settle earlier starts to resurface even heavier than before.
After you struggle around a corner of a building, seeing the last stretch of the littered street, a soldier from WICKED jumps up from behind an abandoned, dark car shooting at you three madly. You fire back but miss as he dashes to the side, and as he fires again, in seconds you feel a hot and almost blinding pain sear through your right arm.
"Y/N!" You hear Gally's voice before the pain becomes too much to bear.
You drop your weapon and hear it clatter over the road as you clutch your freshly wounded limb, trying not to cry out too loudly. The soldier is down and wounded too in a matter of seconds, and Gally comes to your aid immediately. He pulls you up, almost wildly, searching you and your eyes in a state of panic, "Where are you hurt? Are you okay?"
"Gally!" Minho screams, "We've got to go!" He motions to the groups on the other side of the street, behind you both, and his words and alarming voice snaps Gally out of this panic. He puts his arm around your waist, and your left arm around his shoulders, and he uses his strength to get you out of there fast while shooting any enemy with his left hand.
Minho makes it to the Berg before the pair of you and is quickly given the serum needed for Newt. Gally immediately tells Brenda in panicked short breaths that you're injured in the arm, and that she better "take damn good care of you" because he has to go back with Minho.
Just as he turns to go though, as Minho is almost halfway down the street already, you grab him before he can sprint off.
He frowns, "Don't worry, I'll be okay."
"You better be," You huff, "You better come back, okay?"
"I will, I promise."
Your hands rest on his chest as you stand up on your tip-toes, kissing his lips slowly and gently, never having ever done something like this before. He feels your uncertainty but pushes that to the back of your mind as his arms wrap around your waist and his hands pull you closer to him. You feel him move with you, gentle but fiery all at the same time, and you find yourself wanting more as soon as he breaks away from you.
"I'll be back." He says this firmly, quietly, to you only, his eyes staring into yours to really confirm what he's saying.
You nod and watch as he runs to catch up with Minho, and suddenly there's tension instead of reassurance, and you can only wait for him to come back with the others; while somebody you don't recognise tries to stop the pain and the bleeding in your right arm.
Brenda comes up beside you as the unknown member, probably someone from Gally's group, cleans your wound the best they can while keeping as much pressure on it as possible. You wince with each passing occasion, trying to bite back the tears.
"Thomas..." She looks out down the road where you just came from, "Is he alright?"
You nod, "Yeah... he's doing fine. He's waiting with Newt."
Brenda blinks, "What?"
"He's..." You frown, thinking about what you said more carefully, but instead of trying to find your mistake you just say it again, more clearly this time, "He's waiting with Newt."
"He's waiting with somebody who could turn any minute!?" Brenda shakes her head, "He shouldn't have..." She grabs a weapon and signals to Jorge that she's going to find Thomas and the rest of the guys, "He shouldn't have been left alone with a Crank!"
Brenda's words sting; cut deep. You watch as she runs down the road, and struggle to keep your breathing calm... Newt a Crank... Thomas hurt... These thoughts and images flash through your mind, and there isn't anything you can do to put them at rest except wait for them to get back.
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You turn over in your makeshift mattress, a dull ache still residing in your arm, the sun filtering through the slightly open tent doors. You decide it must be sunrise, by the coolness of the morning air, and the faint glow of the sunlight. You notice Gally's absence and practically roll out of bed to see where he went.
You slip on one of his jumpers, thrown by the side of the tent, and wander out onto the green, dew filled grass. You spot a few people awake too, preparing breakfast. You finally see the tall figure out on the sand by the shoreline, watching the sunrise.
You hug your arms to your chest as the cool, morning breeze hits you when you reach the sand. You feel the soft grains between your toes as you come up beside Gally, and when he notices your presence he opens his arms up to you, and you lean against his side, his arms around you and yours around him.
"You're up early." He says matter of fact.
"So are you."
He sighs, "Yeah." He kisses your forehead, "No need to worry about it though."
"Wake me up next time."
He furrows his brows, "Hm?"
"When you have a nightmare, wake me up."
"But you—
You cut him off with a single look, and he closes his mouth in defeat. He sighs again, lovingly rather than tiredly this time, and kisses you adoringly and clumsily.
Between his kisses he mutters, "What on Earth would I do without you?"
You keep kissing him back, "Well, you definitely wouldn't have morning kisses like these."
"Guess I should wake you up, then."
You chuckle, nudging his side, and he overreacts by feigning incredible pain. You spot Thomas and Minho walking towards you both, and you realise why Gally woke up so early after all.
They stand beside you both, and you look out to the ocean water, the crashing and sea-salt spray a little gentler than most days. You four stand on the beach's shoreline in silence, remembering Newt and the life he had in the Glade and the Scorch, you remember the memories of food fights and stupid bets, you remember the sad times, when you cried on his shoulder at 2am when Gally was confusing to you more than ever. You four remember him in your own ways in silence; and acknowledge the month that has passed since his death in the city.
Like ESP or telepathy, you all know when the silence is over, and the remembering is done. You group hug and then follow the trail back up towards the Haven, sharing memories and laughing about the good times you've had.
Gally's hand holds yours, and even though you've lost friends and gained them, you know that none of it was done for nothing because now you can finally live peacefully with the only family you need.