The ship had been packed and everything was ready. They were leaving tomorrow. Tonight, there was a big storm rolling in, so Vince made the decision to wait until after the storm. Everyone of importance agreed and was at some big important meeting.
Hope was not one of these big shot important decision makers so she went for a walk. Wrapping her arms around herself she just walked aimlessly.

She eventually found herself slowly making her way up the little hill that led up to the cliffs. She stopped walking and just stood. She didn't really know how to feel. She didn't know what to do with herself. How do you start to heal from what she went through? Nine months and then abruptly done. She wasn't complaining, she was thankful to be out, but she didn't know how to start.

Her mind went blank and her hands started to shake. She sunk to her knees and just sat. Stiff and unmoving. Her mind was either spinning too fast with all her overthinking, or it went completely blank and her eyes glazed over and she wasn't seeing the hill or the beach town. She was back on the streets of The Last City. She saw the dead bodies, the fires and broken buildings and rubble everywhere. She didn't hear the waves. All she could hear was the explosions, the screams and gun fire.

Hope cowered and threw her hands up and over her head. Her heart was slamming into her chest, the panic inside her increased. She couldn't breath again. Just like in the city. Her lungs were burning, but she couldn't get enough oxygen in. Another explosion made her scream and hyperventilate.

Something grabbed her. Making her scream even more, her arms flailed and faught.

"Hope. Hold my wrists, hold on. It's okay."

In the middle of her flailing her hands grabbed onto the forearms of the person who held her face.

"Where are you Hope?"

An explosion went off and she cried out and tried to throw her arms up to shield herself.

"Hope you are safe. You are safe."

"No!" She cried, "no! I can't...I can't breathe! I'm going to die!" She gasped wildly, "I can't breath!"

"Breath in. And out."

Hope gripped tighter.

"Breath in. Slowly-"

"It hurts!"

"You're safe right now. You just need to breathe. Breath with me....good. In. Nice and slow and then out. Good job. Keep going."

Hope followed the simple instructions. Slowly her mind slowed down and her breathing became easier. The wild raging fires died away. The explosions slowly morphed into the crashing of the waves. The gun fire became wild in the trees. The dead bodies disappeared and the only person who was with her was Frypan.

"Hello Hope."

"Fry..." She whispered.

He smiled gently at her. He still had her face in his warm hands. Her chest and head hurt from hyperventilating. Her muscles lost some of their tension and she slowly released the right grip on Fry's wrists. When her hands flopped into her lap he let her face go.

"I'm...I'm sorry." She whispered.

"No need to be sorry Hope. It's going to take a long time to heal. When we got the kids from the train car...it took a long time. There's a lot of kids who still have attacks and nightmares. No need to be sorry."

"Why...why are you here?"

"Meeting was over."

"But... you're here."

"Yes I am. Thought you could use a friend."

Hope felt confused. Her sore head didn't understand.

"But your...your a Glader."

"Uhh. Yeah?" He pulled his eyebrows together and tipped his head. "Why does that matter, Hope?"

"'Cause I'm...I'm a no body."

"That's not true. You're a somebody. Amd especially to Gal- sorry. To Will. That's gonna get some getting used to. Your a somebody to Will. And to Lanna. And to Odin. And Vera and Harvey. And Tim."

Hope cut him off with a scoff.

"Well, your definitely mean something to your brother."

"How did you know?"

"Told us all at the meeting. And he ripped into Tim and Minho pretty good. Would have added Thomas too, but he's still unconscious from that gun shot."

"Why?" Hope whispered, "why would he do that?"

"Because your a somebody. And there are people who care about you Hope."

"But why you? Your a mighty Glader, aren't you?"

"The Glade was a long time ago. I've come to appreciate everyone who's around me. Everyone has had a shucky life."

Hope was quiet trying to understand. What would Will rip into Minho and Tim about. And why was Dry here? Had he come looking for her?

"So, made any wishes yet?" He asked snapping her mind back.

"What?"

"A wish." He smiled and held up a perfectly round fluffy headed dandilion. Hope made a noise somewhere between a laugh and a sob. She gently took the steam from him, twirling it in her fingers, watching it sadly.

"That was a long time ago.

"Yeah. It was." He said simply. He shifted so he was sitting beside her instead of in front of her. "okay Hope. Time for a new wish." He said brightly, with a smile, his big smiles always made his eyes dance with life.

She tipped her head to the side and thought for a second. Closed her eyes for a second and then gently blew the seeds away into the wind. She watched the seeds blow away.

"So what was the new wish?"

"You know they won't come true if I told you."

He chuckled. "okay what was the old one?"

"Can't tell you."

"Why not, Hope?"

"Because Frypan." She turned her head to look at him. "It was the same wish as before. And if it ever does come true...I'll let you know."

"Deal." He smiled gently at her. She let a ghost of a smile appear. It slid off.

"Fry?"

"Yes Hope?"

"Why are you always so kind to me?"

"Everyone deserves kindness."

"But..." She started and then trailed off,  "your not like the others."

"Like The Ivy trio?" He raised an eyebrow and gave her a bit of a cheeky smile.

"The who?"

"Ivy Trio. Thomas, Newt and Minho."

Hope snorted.

"Yeah. Your not like that."

"I stayed out of the drama. I'm friends with them, don't get me wrong, we went through a lot together. But... Winston-" his voice wavered. Hope sat quietly, just waiting. "He was my best friend. Him and Gally- shuck! Sorry! Will. Will, Winston and me were out own group." He shrugged.

"Oh."

"Newt is really kind. He is. I promise, he was the guy who held us all together. He was the gentle one. Everyone liked Newt, he was good with the Greenies. He had a way of making everyone feel welcome and comfortable."

"I dunno. I'm comfortable with you."

"Well thank you Hope!" He let a big belly laugh out. "That means a lot."

"For being a mighty eleit Glader your okay."

That made him throw his head back and laugh.

"What's so funny?"

Hope looked around, coming up the hill were Gally and Lanna, Harvey and Vera.

"Hope!" Vera squealed and ran the rest of the way and threw herself at her friend. Hope landed on her back with a loud omph.

Once they were both sitting back up and everyone gave her a hug and sitting down Fry chuckled and leaned over.

"See? A somebody to these people."

Hope nodded slowly, still feeling the weight of everything that happened. She just sat looking at them all. Her eyes landed on her brother, he was sitting stiff and slightly tense. Her eyes travelled over his face they landed on a red mark on his cheek. She frowned. He ran a hand through his hair and Hope saw his knuckles were red and cut.

"Will? What happened?" She asked quietly. All eyes went to him. There was a sudden tension in the small group. Hope narrowed her eyes. He shifted slightly.

"He punched your old boyfriend." Lanna said rolling her eyes.

"He was never my boyfriend." Hope said sharply.

"Well. He's definitely more'n' a friend." Lanna pointed her finger at her, "Anyway so whatever he was to you, he punched him."

"Why?"

"Forget about it"

"No." Hope folded her arms. "He clearly hit back."

"Please." Will waved a hand and rolled his eyes. "Wasn't our first fight. Doubt it'll be our last."

"But I was the cause of it."

"No. His arragance was."

"I wanted to punch him the first time we meet in the train station. He has an arragant pumchable face." Harvey grumbled.

Hope narrowed her eyes, she could feel the prickle of tears. Clenching her jaw she ripped her eyes away and looked away, swallowing her emotions and forcing the tears away, she didn't want to cry in front of so many people. She had mixed feelings about this. She felt bad for Minho, this was all fresh, breaking out of prison and torture was all fresh. And he had been sweet and caring and they had laughed and she thought they had become good friends. She truly believed he had been honest with her. And that's probably why she felt so hurt and betrayed. He made her feel used and definitely feel unimportant.

But she felt like finally like someone cared enough to stand up for her. Then she felt guilty for feeling better about her brother punching Minho. There were too many mixed emotions all overlapping and morphing together she could feel her palms becoming sweaty and her hands started to shack.

"Hope?"

She blinked a few times, she shook her head and looked around. Fry had placed a hand on her back and he leaned in.

"Huh? What?"

"You feeling alright?" Fry asked quietly, "you zoned out for a bit, and your clenching your pants in your fists."

"Oh. Sorry." She whispered.

She let go of her pants and wiped the sweat off. Everyone around her was laughing and talking. Fry was watching her with his calm steady dark eyes.

"No need to be sorry. Are you comfortable right now? How are you feeling?"

She shrugged. Honestly she had no idea what she felt. She had no idea what she was comfortable with anymore.

"I can't imagine this being easy."

No, it definitely wasn't easy. And she was exhausted, her head hurt and she just wanted it quiet. She liked these people, but it too much.

"Do you to go?" He asked quiet.

Hope just nodded. Fry smiled at her.

"Hey, Lanna?" Fry said, "sorry to interrupt. But, Hope wanted to go to bed."

Lanna and Vera jumped up and pulled Hope to feet. Lanna looped her arm and took her back down the hill to their little house they shared with Papa and Vera. Hope pulled her shift off and Lanna gasped and sucked in a sharp breath.

"Oh gosh, Hope!"

"I don't feel it anymore." Hope said quietly.

"That's all from WICKED?"

Her back and ribs were covered in bruises and red marks from the torture, beatings stab marks from needles and scars from electrocution.

"Hope!" Lanna whimpered. "That's awful!"

Hope pulled a hoodie on and crawled into bed. Lanna grabbed something and came over to the bed.

"Quackers missed you."

"What? He survived?"

"Of course! We couldn't leave him behind!"

Hope made another weird noise between a laugh and cry. She pulled her little stuffed duck close to her chest and the blanket, she snuggled her face into it. It was finally something familiar. She let out a shacking breath. Lanna and Vera changed Lanna crawled into bed with Hope. Hope snuggled closed to her sister. Hope was asleep within minutes.

Sometime during the night the storm finally rolled in. The thunder shook the house. Hope sat up screaming. She was right back in the streets. The lightning flashed and she flinched so bad she fell out of bed. She was going to be electrocuted. Strapped down electrocuted and tortured. Thunder made the room shack, making Hope scramble backwards on her hands, into the corner. Her chest rising and falling too quickly. She let out whimpers and screams. Part of her mind knew she was in a bedroom with Lanna and Vera, but the rational side of her brain was swallowed each time there was a flash of lightning and a boom of thunder.

Huge arms scooped her up and she felt movement. She knew it was Papa. But she still flinched and whimpered and cried. He carried her to the front porch and sat down on the top step with her curled into him. He sat and watched the rain fall.

"You're safe."

He spent a long time reassuring her and holding. Lanna came at one point with hot chocolate and Vera came holding blankets and her stuffed duck. They sat down with Hope and Odin and they watched the storm. Hope kept flinching.

"I feel like a damn baby!" Hope hiccuped.

"Hope, my dear," Odin said with a frown. "If you didn't have trauma I would be more worried. I had nightmares like this after my first tour. Every night for months. It eventually slowed down."

"Do you still get them?"

He nodded. "Yes. I still do. Not as often. But it happens."

Vera and Lanna stayed with them for a while but they eventually went back to bed. Hope knew she wasn't going to sleep she stayed huddled beside Papa.

"So...your brother is taking his big brother duties quite seriously."

Hope just hummed. Odin frowned and looked down at her.

"Tell me."

Hope sighed. She knew that he would find out eventually. And she always confused in him before. She sighed and told him what happened in the nine months; how they had to learn to rely on each other, they learned to trust each other. She told him about his promises, and some of their talks, how they slowly started becoming more reliant on each other, night mares getting worse, getting sick more often, how many nights they just held each other, and then his confession and their first kiss. And second ...and then third. (Not in detail, but enought for him to understand it wasn't just some throw away thing.) He meant more to her than she wanted to admit. 

"Well I'm glad Gal-Will. I'm glad Will hit him. It was a solid hit. But...also remember he's also struggling. He needed you. I'm sure he didn't lie about that. And now he's out, free. He's going to pretend he's fine. He's going to pretend he doesn't need help. And unfortunately that means you. I'm not saying it's right at all. It was cheap and below the belt."

He paused for a moment and then continued.

"He obviously means more to you then you meant to him. So don't waist your time on someone who doesn't put your energy into someone who doesn't pick you first."

"Yeah...that's what hurts, Papa. It hurts more when you realize you aren't as important to someone as you thought."

"I know it hurts kiddo. But boys are dumb sometimes. And these boys...they had a pretty messed up upbringing inside those facilities. Remember who raised them."

"Janson and Ava...and WICKED. I know. But still...no excuse."

"No. Your right. Don't excuse their behaviour, you don't have to like them or be best friends. But try to understand them. And be polite, Safe Haven isn't big, apparently. Lanna and Vera, Harvey, Fry and now your brother. Tim when he gets his ass up and realizes what's going on."

"Thanks Papa."

"It's what I'm here for. I had a daughter in high school. It was a while ago now...but the boy drama I could tell you!" He chuckled sadly.

He pulled Hope close and kissed the top of her head. Hope stayed awake, fighting her own thoughts and feelings, still flinching with the thunder. The storm blew itself out and Hope eventually fell asleep, with her head on Papa's shoulder.

•°•

• Now we're getting into the FryPan end game. ;) I told ya'll Hope had
to go on a journey •