Hope lay as still as possible, not wanting to move and wake up Minho. She had woken up and definitely felt better. He body wasn't as sore, and her mind was definitely clearer. Minho's arm was still draped over her, keeping her close to his chest. She had woken up with his face pressed right into the back of her neck, his face buried in her hair. Her heart had just about stopped and then started beating so fast it almost hurt and her face was incredibly pink and hot.

His breath tickled her neck. Yet she stayed and didn't move. Hope felt guilty, he had looked exhausted yesterday. He had obviously stayed up taking care of her and she felt terrible. He needed sleep just as much as she did.

She tried to hold the cough in, but she could feel the deep ache in her chest and when she took a deep breath she could feel the phlegm in her lungs.

"Could you die a little quieter? Some of us need sleep." A groggy voice grumbled behind her.

Once she got her deep wet hacking under control she rolled onto her back, and looked at him. He was using the heels of his hands to rub his eyes and yawn.

"Ya, you definitely need some more beauty sleep."

He gasped, dropping his hands to his chest, holding it. "Take that back!" He cried.

Hope laughed, but it turned into a deep cough again. She struggled to breathe for a moment. Minho sat up, frowning at her.

"I'm fine." She said between coughs, "I'm fine."

He eyed her up a bit more, narrowing his eyes, but didn't push it. "Well, glad Hope is back. I missed her snarky comments and pessimistic view of life."

She snorted and rolled her eyes.

"Dude why is it so cold in here all the time?" She whined, curling back up into a ball on her side, and pulling the blanket up to her chin.

"Awww you just want me to hug you!"

"Eww. No!"

"Yes you do! Admit it! You liiiiked me snuggling with you!" He teased, poking her shoulder. She swatted his hand away, her face going pink. She didn't want to admit it, but...it was kind of nice. She didn't feel so cold and lonely. Having someone literally having her back. Without warning he flopped on top of her making a wild omph noise. Minho was very obnoxious about the whole thing. Laying ontop of her and sprawling out and wiggling just to make her whine.

She tried pushing him off, but she was definitely still weak from the fever. He was heavy. And it pressed on her, making her feel trapped. Her lungs were already having a hard time with all the juicy thick phlegm she couldn't breathe. The feeling of being trapped made the sharp pain in her chest worse. She could feel the rising panic, her palms felt sweaty and itchy.

"Minho!" She gasped, her breathing was ragged again. "Minho! Get off! Please!"

She started coughing, and it wouldn't stop, which didn't help the feeling of restricted lungs and trapped. He scrambled off, his eyes wide in worry.

"Shuck. Hope! I'm sorry!"

He helped her sit up, so she could get oxygen into her lungs a little better. He kept a hand on her back as she coughed and sputtered. Very slowly her coughing slowed down as did her breathing.

"I'm sorry...I'm sorry..." She repeated, trying to gain control over the panic.

"Clearly you don't like being on the bottom." He smirked. Hope sputtered some more at his insinuation. Her face went bright pink.

"Minho!" She smacked his arm.

"Oh come on!" He laughed at her. "So you DO like the bottom?"

"Minho!" She yelped again smacking him.

"Oooh! You're a switch!" He grinned cheekily at her. Her face was so red and hot now. "Come on! You can tell me! I won't tell anyone!"

"What about you?" She folded her arms and glared at him.

He shrugged. "Dunno. Memories have all been swiped." Clearly talking about this didn't phase him, he seemed quite comfortable."wasn't a lot of female options in the maze." He raised an eyebrow at her.

"None of those Gladers caught your eye?" She snarked back.

"No."

"Ya sure? You don't swing?"

"Sure I swing. Both ways. With a club."

Hope giggled as she slowly eased herself back down, laying down she felt a bit better now that she could breath properly, she lay on her back, pulling the blanket up. This time Minho flopped down beside her and not on her. He was laying on his back looking at the plain white tiles ceiling.

"So? What about you, Ace?"

"Trying to survive the scorch and a zombie apocalypse doesn't give a lot of room for dating."

"Not even once?"

"No. I've had enough people lost in my life...I didn't want to attach to another person. I had Lanna, Vera, Papa, Tim and Harvey."

"Ahh, this Harvey..?" He asked. She notice the side eye when he asked about him.

Hope shook her head. "No. We were on a mission to gather intel, and figure out what rumors were true. He was picked up by the WICKED sweeps in the city. I didn't think I'd see him again."

"Well...he must have been in the train car that was rescued. I didn't see him during our reunification into the building."

Hope just nodded, feeling the sting of tears. She was glad he was rescued. But wished she was part of it too.

"So, no boy friends?" Minho asked, a bit more gentler.

"No." She shook her head, riding herself of the oncoming tears. "Never."

"Any potentials?"

"Why so interested in my love life Meanhoe?"

"Not like we got a tv to watch." He shrugged. He folded his arms behind his head, making his biceps stand out. Hope was almost positive he was flexing. How he kept muscle being locked up was the true mystery..
She sighed and rolled her eyes, rolling onto her side to face him, she pulled the blanket up, and bent an arm under her head.

"But to answer your question...no."

"Even Tim?"

"More of a brother."

"This Harvey shank."

"No. He's cute. But no. He's too...innocent, almost. Like too naive."

Minho hummed. He turned his head to look at her, "Frypan?"

"I had like three conversations with him before camp was blown apart."

"But you two got along."

"Sure. Out of your group he was the least arrogant. And actually saw things from my perspective."

"I take that personally, Ace! I am not arrogant!"

Hope snorted. And Minho grined at her.

"Aren't you going to ask about yourself?" Hope asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Hmm. Maybe. Dunno." He rolled onto his side to face her. They were now face to face. And their faces were only about a foot part. She was close enough to see the different shades of brown in his dark eyes, and see how long and think his lashes were. "Am I, Ace? Am I potential?" He whispered.

"Well I did just sleep with you!" Hope said with a deadpan look, despite her flushed cheeks and racing heart. "I don't just sleep around! What kind of hoe do you think I am?"

Minho laughed so loudly it echoed through a small white sterile room. He rolled onto his back, holding his chest and stomach. It was such a wholesome sight, it made Hope smile and chuckle. 

"You're Mean-Hoe's!" He managed to speak between his wild laughter.

Hope snorted with laughter then too, and then they were both giggling so hard she had tears slipping down her cheeks.

"Thank you Ace. I needed that." He chuckled, finally getting himself under control.

"Anytime. I haven't actually laughed like that in a long time." Hope smiled, her checks hurt.

It was the strangest thing. Being locked in a bright white cell, being held captive by the world's evil government, being used as human guinea pigs, still recovering from a torture induced fever, and she was laughing so hard her stomach hurt. Her laughing turned into wild ragged coughing. It took her a minute to get her breath back. Minho had got up and grabbed her a cup of water. Taking a few sips, it helped ease her burning throat and cough. Now that wild burst of energy was gone she could feel the exhaustion hitting her.

"You should sleep, Ace. That fever kicked your shuck butt." Minho said seriously, he was squatting down in front of her, a hand on her knee as she struggled to get her breathing back. She massaged her sore chest.

"You too." She wheezed. "You look like you could use some more beauty sleep."

"I'll take all the sleep I can get!" He yawned.

He got up, with the blanket around her shoulders he flopped down onto his own bed, and was asleep within minutes. Hope had laid down and curled up, as she was drifting off to sleep, she kind of wished Minho was back beside her.

•°•

Hope had just gone through a round of torture. Another month and a half... Today, however, Janson and Teresa decided to use a different approach today. The doctors injected some kind of serum into her system that made her relive her worst nightmares.

She spent hours trapped inside the small dug out under the floor boards listening to the sounds out screaming, thumpinh, gun shots and then silence. She relieved trying to wake her mom and dad up despite their bodies laying in pools of blood and then being cold and stiff. She also spent hours racing around the farm house trying to hide from Crank Mrs Miller.

Now she sat alone in some room, her wrists chained to the cold metal table. Her head hung low, tear tracks had dried down her cheeks, her throat was sore from screaming.  Her muscles burnt and her body was too tired to sit up.

The door opened and someone walked in, their heels clicking across the floor. A chair was dragged out, the scrapping noise made Hope wince.

"Hope? Can you hear me?"

It was Teresa. Hope ground her teeth, what did this tearor want.

"You've some nerve coming here after watching me be tortured for six straight hours!" Hope hissed.

"I wanted to talk to you."

"Well, I don't."

"I wanted to talk to you about my mother."

"To be perfectly honest...I don't care."

"I remember my mother..." Teresa went on, ignoring Hope. "She was a beautiful woman. Everybody loved her." Teresa said, her eyes went distant, staring at the wall. She was talking, but she wasn't really in the room anymore. Hope let her talk. She could care less what she had to say, and not like she was going to be let out of the room any time soon. 

"And before WICKED, she was all I had. When she got sick, I didn't know what to do. I just kept her locked up. Hidden. I thought she'd get better. Every night, she'd make these awful sounds, like screaming. And then, one night, she just stopped. She was finally quiet." Teresa stopped for a second and took a shuddering breath, her eyes were glassy. Hope had a hard time feeling sorry for her. Everyone had a story like hers.

"I went down to her room. And there was blood everywhere. But she was..." She gulped, "just sat there, calm. She said she was feeling better. The visions were gone. She'd taken care of them." Her big glassy eyes turned to Hope, a few tears slid down. She was a good actress. "She took her eyes out, Hope. There are millions of people suffering out there. Millions of stories, just like mine. We can't turn our backs on them. I won't. We have to find a cure Hope. We have to."

"There is no cure. There are also rumors going around WICKED started the Flare. Did you know that? So far all the rumors have been true. So...why the heck would WICKED make a disease and release it into the population and then panick when they can't control it? Are they that stupid to release a disease with no way of controlling it? Probably. But maybe, everyone here can act like real doctors, and stop kidnapping kids and using us like lab rats.

"Do you remember your mother?" She asked, cutting me off. Her voice was suddenly snippy, despite her tears.

Hope glared at the girl sitting across from her. "Yes. I do actually. She was lovely. Kind, pretty, funny and creative. Her name was Caroline. She loved wild flowers and reading. I remember baking cookies with her. Want to know what happened to her?"

"She became a crank, didn't she. I'm sorry Hope, that's why we need-"

"No. Actually she didn't become a crank."

Teresa blinked a few times, as she opened her mouth but then closed it with a snap.

"WICKED shot her. And my dad. And my dog for good measure. They took my brother. WICKED just showed up, shot my family and took my big brother. I haven't seen him again. I know your stupid coworks know about him. But no one tells us lab rats anything. We get electrocuted when the lab rats ask questions. So, no you traitor, my parents didn't turn into cranks, they were murdered by WICKED."

Teresa sat her jaw clenched. Her eyes flicked to the camera in the corner a few times.

"You didn't know, did you? You had no idea WICKED killed parents and took kids. How many other families have WICKED ripped apart, all in the name of a cure that doesn't exist? Do you know where these other kids come from? Wanna know how many kids I've seen ripped from mother's arms? How many fathers have been shot in cold blood in the middle of streets for trying to keep their families safe? Or do you just not care? I doubt it you cold hearted monster!"

Hope was screaming at this point. There wasn't much she could actually do, but she stood up suddenly, her metal chair toppled backwards. Teresa yelped, and scrambled backwards. Hope strained at the chains around her wrists trying to get to Teresa, but she couldn't. The door behind Teresa slammed open and guards came storming into the room.

"Screw you! You traitor! You dirty lier! Screw you! Murder!"

The guards slammed her down into the table holding her down. Hope continued to scream insults at Teresa who stood frozen in the corner, her mouth open, her eyes wide and face pale. Hope screamed in pain as they brought out a tazer. Her world went fuzzy and faded to black as pain radiated through her body.

•°•

Hope was tossed into her cell, onto the cold tiled floor and the door was slammed shut. Minho shot off the bed.

"Hope! What the shuck did they do?" His voice was strained and full of worry.

All Hope could do was burst into tears. Minho sat her up and then pulled her into a tight hug. Hope sobbed into Minho's shoulder. His arms kept her safe and he laid his chin on top of her head. When she was under control she slowly explained her new torture session and then her meeting with Teresa. Minho growled when he heard about Teresa.

"They tazed me and I was out."

"Well...I'm proud of you for screaming insults! I didn't know you had it in ya! Good job Ace!"

Hope smirked slightly, "you should have seen her face when I stood up trying to lung at her."

"Ya? You scared the klunk out of her, didn't you?!" Minho chuckled.

"Yeah I did!"

"Good job young padowan!"

Hope smiled slightly to herself as he kissed the top of her head.