After much time spent healing, life in the Safe Haven was pure bliss.

"Are we really trying this again?"

It was the crack of dawn. The sun had only just risen above the horizon, sending shards of colour all across the sky and over the small ripples on the water. The fresh air on Florence's face was something she would never take for granted; the mist from the sea and the soft scent of the fruits growing in their groves always took part in brightening her day.

"Yes. Of course we are."

Florence sent her brother off to get ready for the day ahead of them, weary eyed and barely awake. On the contrary, she was already raring to go; bright eyed and smiling.

She turned back to her shack to bid a quick goodbye to her husband and son. Opening the door slowly and cautiously, the light the summer brought fell onto the bed that Minho and Ben were curled up on.

Ben, their first and only child - labour was far too painful for Florence to undergo again - had crawled into their bed that night after complaining of bad dreams. He was snoring soundly next to a waking Minho who had unfortunately caught the light entering the room directly in his eyes.

Minho had that look upon his face, the one that echoed almost the exact same words Thomas had spoken to her moments ago: Are you really trying this again? 

Florence was adamant that she and her brother would be able to catch some fish this time. They had tried it before, precisely four times, heading out on a small fishing boat early each morning and just waiting and waiting for something to happen.

They had a few close moments, in which one of them had felt something pulling on their fishing line - but when they yanked it out of the water they only found seaweed or nothing. They mostly spent the time out there talking, discussing official Safe Haven business or their own family lives.

Minho had managed to sneak out of bed without disturbing Ben, and wrapped his arms around Florence in a hug, planting kisses across her cheeks and forehead. She squirmed in his grasp, pretending to try and wrestle her way away from him, but ultimately leaned into his chest.

"Fishing again?" He murmured, to which she nodded.

"I'm determined to catch a fish! I'm providing for our family." She joked as quietly as possible, and Minho chuckled lowly before planting one last kiss on her head.

"Go provide whilst I go back to bed."

Florence hadn't even left the hut when Minho had passed out, fast asleep on their bed. She glanced at him fondly, and then at her son, before slipping out of the room to eat before she left.

The camp was just beginning to buzz with energy. Some people were always up at this time, such as Vince, but Florence couldn't say the same. She admired the hard workers who got the Safe Haven raring to go every morning; those who made breakfast in preparation for everyone to wake up, those who did early morning patrols, those who started on farming.

The camp worked in beautiful harmony because everyone did their fair share of work.

Florence found her brother sat at a bench and enjoying his breakfast. He looked a little less tired than earlier, but she knew from experience that his son - just under a year old - was probably causing him a lot of exhaustion.

He and Newt named their son Chuck. Brenda, being an absolute sweetheart, was their surrogate. She had actually recently started dating Gally, after years of them denying feelings for one another, and neither of them really wanted kids of their own.

Florence swept past Thomas, pinching a piece of toast from his plate and heading towards where Frypan was cooking up breakfast for the early birds of the camp. She could hear her brother whining about the toast she was happily munching away on, but merely ignored him.

"Good morning Florence." Fry greeted cheerfully, serving her up some food.

"Good morning, you know, you're the best cook in this place." She gushed, as he scoffed playfully.

"You only say that cause I give you extras."

She wandered away from him and towards her brother, waving her hand dismissively but looking over her shoulder to smile at him. He was shaking his head knowingly.

"Because you're the best!" She called to him.

Florence and Thomas quickly finished their breakfast, feeling the need to hurry after Brenda and Gally collapsed into seats beside them, arguing about some sort of issue with building. Thomas and Florence exchanged a knowing glance. Both Brenda and Gally were too stubborn to come to an agreement, meaning their small disagreement seemed likely to stretch on forever.

"Go on," Florence relented, "Tell us what's going on."

Thomas tried to hide his scowl aimed at his sister, but the girl's words had sent Brenda into a frenzy of explaining Gally's building design for a row of new huts up on the top of the mountain. Before she was even finished with explaining it, Gally had cut in to bicker with her about something she said, and then Florence and Thomas took that moment to slip away.

They didn't want to get between the bickering couple.

Florence could still hear their argument from on the beach, almost half way across the camp from Brenda and Gally. She decided to tune them out, glancing towards her trusty fishing boat - which she and Thomas named 'The Glade' - and spotting Harriet and Sonya nearby.

The beach was one of her favourite parts of the camp.

At this time of day, so early in the morning, it was glorious to walk over the white sands and gaze out at the horizon with the water peacefully lapping against your feet. Florence had swam a few times at the crack of dawn, not regretting it once despite how cold she found it.

And later on, during the day or in the evening, it was filled with life. Kids were found building sandcastles, learning to swim, or playing hazardous games of volleyball across the stretch of sand. Parents and other adults would lounge around in sunbathing, or embrace their inner kid by splashing into the waves.

It was always heaven there.

"You guys are heading out again?" Harriet questioned, straightening up from where she was leaned against a fishing boat.

It wasn't the one that Florence and Thomas tended to take out onto the water. Gally must have built it recently, and now Harriet and Sonya were painting it.

"It's supposed to be really good for fishing today." Sonya added, putting down her paintbrush onto the tin of paint by her feet.

"Yeah but it's us. How likely is it that we'll get anything?" Thomas replied snarkily.

Florence nudged his side and added that, "Well I believe in us, even if Thomas doesn't."

They waved the two of them goodbye, and boarded 'The Glade', wobbling over the small waves in the shore before peacefully gliding across the calm water to reach the stretch of sea that Vince advised was best to fish from.

They set up their fishing rods and settled back into their seats. Thomas was staring fondly at their camp on shore, which was only a few speckles of light and colour from their distance.

"Remember the moment we found out we were siblings?" He suddenly said, and Florence gathered that he had been reminiscing. 

"Yeah." Florence laughed, picturing it. "Newt looked like he had seen a ghost."

They had certainly come a long way since then. Back in the Glade, Florence never would've guessed that one day she'd be where she was today.

Thomas and Florence were both well respected and well known throughout the camp. After all, they were part of the group that brought down WCKD; all of their names were known.

The siblings often acted as advisors for Vince, who had a marvellous job in running the place. They both appeared in the meetings that happened regularly, giving feedback on the jobs they were allocated: Thomas in patrolling - which he did twice a day with Minho - and Florence in her medical occupation.

She and Minho had married a few years ago, shortly after having Ben.

She had Brenda as her maid of honour, with Harriet and Sonya as her other bridesmaids. Newt was Minho's best man, and Gally, Frypan and Aris all assumed the role of groomsmen. Thomas took his job of walking Florence down the aisle very seriously, and Jorge - of course - was the one to officiate.

The ceremony itself was small, but the parties and celebrations on the beach that followed for the next few days were gigantic. Considering Florence had a hell of a lot of alcohol - making the most of the fact Jorge's wedding present to them was to babysit Ben for a while - she was surprised the whole thing wasn't just one big blur.

Newt and Thomas had their own wedding only a few months afterwards. Minho returned the favour of being Newt's best man, and Florence was delighted when Thomas asked her to be his best man (despite not being a man). She also refuses to admit the fact she cried tears of joy.

Florence's hands were loosely holding her fishing rod, still reminiscing, but that was all forgotten when she felt a force tugging on the rod between her hands. There was something on the line.

"Thomas!" She exclaimed excitedly.

The boy leaned forwards in intrigue, but was careful to not get his hopes up, seeing as this had happened before and they were left disappointed. Florence reeled in her line, and was met with pure delight at the sight of a small fish hanging on the end of it.

Thomas deposited it in a bucket left at their feet, and the siblings rejoiced in the fact their fishing trip was finally successful. Their victory was only small, but none of their friends would want to dampen their parade when it had taken them so many tries to get that far.

They'd never survive if they could only eat fish they caught.

"I told you it would work out." She said smugly.

Thomas had to admit she was right.

He then declared that he was too impatient to wait around longer - and that considering their track record, they wouldn't be catching anymore fish - and so they decided to celebrate the one fish they had managed to get and return home. As they came into the shore, Florence teased her brother over and over for the fact she caught the first fish on their trip rather than him, and Thomas found himself wondering why he ever showed up when she was just so annoying.

Florence let her feet hit the shallows of the water, which was just cold enough to elicit a small yelp from her lips. Thomas imitated her reaction playfully, still sat on the boat as she used the tiny waves lapping the beach to pull 'The Glade' fully onto the sand.

She leaned over the edge of it, grabbing the fish she had caught by its tail - as elegantly as possible - and turned back in pride to her husband and son who were bounding across the beach towards her. Ben shrieked with laughter upon seeing the fish in her hands, and she gave it to him just before Minho swept her up in a exaggerated movie style kiss, joking that she was the breadwinner of the family - which they would both quietly agree that she would be if there was any sort of money in the Safe Haven.

"I've got to hand it to you, you were determined to catch a fish." Minho gestured to the scaly fish now in Ben's hands. "And you got one."

She smiled triumphantly, retelling an exaggerated version of herself and Thomas catching the fish and getting it into their bucket without it jumping away. Somehow, she made out fishing to sound a lot more exciting than it really was.

"Are you going to cook it for dinner?" Ben asked, mesmerised.

That was when Florence exchanged a panicked look with Minho. The girl had never been the best in the kitchen. In fact, she was probably better off being anywhere else.

"If you want to catch food poisoning, she can cook it." Minho teased, letting Ben take his hand and lead him over to where he had spotted a seashell on the sand.

"What's food poisoning?" She could distantly hear Ben asking Minho as he collected shells from the shoreline.

Florence shook her head with a laugh, weaving her way through the camp with the fish to Frypan, who would know how to cook it safely. It definitely wasn't worth the risk of food poisoning if she were to try and cook it herself.

Besides, Frypan's delight with it was yet another thing that made Florence's day. 

She returned to the beach to join Minho and Ben in collecting shells. She found them both engrossed in a mini crafts workshop with Brenda and Aris who were seemingly teaching them how to make bracelets and necklaces from shells and a piece of string. Gally also wandered over shortly after she arrived, trying and failing to make his own necklace from Brenda's instructions as she fondly watched him.

Florence went to work after making three different necklaces. She spent the majority of the day in her medical office: giving young kids a dose of the cure, taking small blood samples from those who were immune, and tending to other medical emergencies.

They hadn't faced a single scare of the Flare returning. The Safe Haven was truly a Flare-free zone, but for precaution all kids were given doses of the cure when they reached a certain age. 

In her breaks, Florence visited Ben when he wasn't in class with the other kids. He was only four, and his days were filled with learning how to read, and write, and other things that Florence was sure she learned in her days of being with WCKD - but her half pieced together memory couldn't remember the exact details of it. She happily listened as he told her what he had learned in class, pushing another drawing into her hands that she was already dying to show Minho.

Ben begged her to tell him another story from her younger days, one that she and Minho hadn't already told. The parents usually gave Ben bedtime stories of back in the Glade or the Scorch, but were careful to leave out gruesome or scarring details. Florence told her son about the boy they named him after, once again, this time with a small tale about one of the many shenanigans they got up to in the Glade.

Ben would've loved Ben.

And vice versa.

And as the sky began to darken, Florence joined her friends at the bonfire they held most evenings. It was always relaxed; a roaring fire for people to warm up besides, festivities high with people chatting, eating and drinking.

Like every night, Florence chatted away to Jorge, who has been teaching her Spanish over the past years. She considered herself pretty good at it by that point; easily keeping up whenever Jorge slipped into the language mid conversation and finding herself able to respond accordingly.

They looked over to Vince who was towards the beach. His hands moved wildly, describing stories from the old days to the young kids that kept them all gushing about it for hours, and make their parents struggle in ever getting them to sleep. He always took time out of his evenings for it - he loved to talk - but he'd forever deny being fond of the 'little rascals who interrupt important business for me!'

Eventually, Florence and her friends all found themselves together. Herself and Minho sat on a blanket sprawled across the sand, listening to Gally and Newt argue playfully over the stupidest things whilst the others all roared with laughter.

Frypan, Brenda and Thomas were making bets on how long it would take before Gally got genuinely frustrated, and Aris, Harriet and Sonya were counting the number of times that Gally said the words, 'You're wrong', each time finding him more annoyed.

Jorge returned with another round of drinks, which is what led Gally to go, "See! You all wanted more!" and Florence reminded herself, Ah, that's what they're fighting over. Gally's gross alcohol recipe.

"I still don't trust the fact you won't tell us what's in it." Newt commented, before taking a sip.

It must have officially become the longest kept secret in history. Gally still hadn't told a single soul of how he managed to concoct his awful yet adored beverage, and Florence couldn't deny she was suspicious of it being his piss.

But she wasn't suspicious enough to not drink it.

"And yet you're still drinking it Newt." Gally said matter-of-factly in return.

This led Newt to scoff and attempt to argue back again, and now almost everyone was chiming in with their own opinions on the matter. Florence leaned back, using her hand to support her, and her other one clutching her glass which she gently clinked against Minho's.

"It gets me drunk, so it's alright by me." He murmured to her, not letting his voice become loud enough for anyone else to hear, and she clinked his glass again in agreement.

As Minho's arm came to rest on her waist, Florence sat content in the fact that life could never be better than what it was right then.

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I bet you thought you'd seen the last of me already! 

To celebrate the one year since I published the first chapter of Princess - I'm a little late, I know - I've decided to post a mini story about life in the Safe Haven for Florence. I know it isn't much, but it feels like the perfect thing to properly conclude her story.

I am so forever grateful for the way that Princess blew up. It makes me so happy seeing all of your comments and the lovely messages in the epilogue. I never would've thought my story would get this much love and if it didn't, I don't know if I would be active on Wattpad today. The support from this book is what inspired me to continue writing!

Shameless self promo: I have a Gally fic fully published, a Thomas fic that I'm currently updating, and a few more TMR stories in the works. I also have a fic on the 100 (for my boy Monty) that I would really appreciate if you checked out. 

Wattpad is such an amazing community to be a part of, and I'm so thankful to have met so many amazing friends on here! I love you all and again thank you so much <3