"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL WERE YOU THINKING, NEWT!" Newt woke up with a piercing headache followed by Alby screaming in his face. He groaned and tried to sit up, but was met with a sharp pain in his leg. He looked down and realized where he was. The Med-hut. His leg was wrapped in cloth and held straight with two pieces of wood.

"What?" he managed. Alby glared at him and thrust a cup of water in his direction.

"I won't attempt to understand what's going on in your mind, but please don't ever do something so stupid again. I get that you're angry. We all are. But that isn't a valid reason to try to kill yourself."

Newt realized what he was talking about. The Wall. Despair. Grief. Jumping. He furrowed his brows in understanding and fell back onto his pillow. He brought a hand to his head and closed his eyes.

He saw Elizabeth's face. Her eyes were lit up and she was smiling at him, her hair brushing against his cheek. He opened his eyes again, his heartbeat increasing.

"Where is Elizabeth?" he asked. Alby shot him a look and raised a curious eyebrow.

"Probably fighting a hangover after last night," he said. Newt was surprised. Elizabeth had never drank before.

"She was drinking last night?" he asked. Alby nodded.

"Everybody was. Probably not the wisest choice, considering. After you jumped, she sort of went crazy. I'm actually not surprised, considering how close the two of you are. It's a wonder she didn't throw herself off right along with you. I don't know if you've noticed, but I don't think she would want to live in this place without her Newt."

Newt felt his face flushing, and something inside of his chest clenched. He had never meant to hurt her. He had never meant to hurt any of them. He felt tears behind his eyes and he forced them away.

"I'm sorry," Newt said, his voice cracking. Alby offered him a reassuring smile.

"I know you are," he said, "but you've got some explaining to do. I also expect you to figure out where you'd like to work from now on, because you won't be able to run anymore with that leg."

Newt felt a strange burning sensation inside of him, like he was losing something, some part of him, that had been important. What had he been thinking? Running was one of the only things keeping him stable in this place, and instead of concentrating on finding a way out for all of them, all he could think about was himself. Instead of accepting the way things were, he kept thinking about the way things could be. He remembered long ago, when Elizabeth had told him that that kind of thinking would be his downfall.

She was right. It had been his downfall. And now there was nothing to do but go forward. He'd fallen behind; it was time to move ahead.

---

Elizabeth had the worst headache she had ever remembered having. Her whole body was in revolt against her, like she was being tied down with stones. After Alby told her that Newt was alive and going to be fine, she dragged herself to her shower stall, threw up in the pot, and washed it all down with freezing water. The shower helped, and she managed to eat a bit of breakfast before going to find Gally. Whatever had happened last night was being obscured by the effects of the alcohol. But she did remember him leaving her alone in her hut. She also remembered drinking the green vial and dreaming of things she had forgotten. Things she had wanted to forget.

Elizabeth shuddered and opened the door to her hut. After her dreams, she had scoured through the rest of the pictures in the crate, realizing now that they were pictures of her, her mother, and Thomas.

Thomas. She had really liked him back then. He might have been the reason she had entered the Maze in the first place, and now he was nothing to her. When she closed her eyes and thought of his face, she felt nothing. There was nothing. Had she even really gotten to know him? Or was she just looking for something to focus on other than the world around her? Was she simply in love with the idea of him?

She changed into the pants and flowery shirt she had received in her crate, wishing she had a mirror to look at herself in. The shirt wasn't as awful-looking as she'd originally thought. It was one of those outfits that looked better on than off. She felt differently than she had yesterday, and she knew it was because of her memories. She wasn't the same Elizabeth, and yet she was.

Gally was hanging with the other builders. They looked up when she walked up, and she could feel their gazes trailing down her body. It was the first time she'd worn something other than the normal, baggy Glade attire.

"Can I speak with you alone, Gally?" she asked. When Gally didn't respond, Doug nudged him in the ribs. He looked over at her and scowled. Elizabeth half expected him to stomp off in the other direction, but he shoved past her and motioned for her to follow. Elizabeth waved at the other Builders, and then went to catch up with him.

"Geez, Galls, lighten up a little, will you?"

Gally turned to face her, his face tinged pink in annoyance. "Let me guess, you want to know the details of last night, right?"

Suddenly Elizabeth felt uneasy, "Yes."

"You drank, Elizabeth, and things started getting out of control so I escorted you to your hut."

Elizabeth would have laughed at his choice of words if it weren't for his seriousness. The tone of his voice when he mentioned things getting out of control worried her. She had been so upset over Newt she had gotten drunk without even thinking about the consequences.

"Did something bad happen?" Her voice was panicked and breathy. Gally shoved his hands into his pockets and sighed.

"It wasn't as bad as all that, I was just annoyed. You really owe me this time, you know. Chris started kissing you and I was the only one sober enough to supervise."

All the breath was sucked out of Elizabeth. Chris had kissed her? She had kissed Chris? Her blood ran cold as she remembered the feeling of his hands on her breast, on her butt, against her shoulders...Thankfully she couldn't remember the experience, but she couldn't say the same thing for him. Out of all the things that could have gone wrong with her decision to drink, that was one of the worst.

"Gally..." she realized she had stopped walking and was clutching a hand to her chest. "Thank you."

To her surprise Gally let out a snort of laughter: "You probably thought it was Newt you were kissing."

"What!"Elizabeth had not been expecting that.

"Don't you remember anything, Elizabeth? I'm falling in love with Newt, Gally! I love him!"

Elizabeth was mortified. Gally continued mimicking her voice until she swatted his arm.

"Stop it, Gally! Don't say that!"

"Why? Is it a lie?" Gally looked at her with that awful, bemused grin of his. Elizabeth's heart felt like it was going to explode within her chest and she tried to focus on all the brown freckles on his face.

"People will start to think you're the one in love with him," she stammered. Gally rose an eyebrow.

"That's funny, Elizabeth, but it didn't answer my question." He crossed his arms and stared her down, "Remember, you owe me one from last night. Actually, you owe me about twenty."

"Um..." Elizabeth shifted her weight to her left leg, and then to the right, trying to steady herself. She knew the answer to the question, she just couldn't say it out loud, yet.

"Yo! Elizabeth!" Elizabeth let out a sigh of relief when she heard someone calling her name. She turned from Gally, who was still staring her down, and plastered a smile on her face. It was Snow. He put his hands on his knees to catch his breath, and then smiled back at her.

"Alby wants you in the Med-hut. Newt is up and asking about you."

Newt? Newt was asking about her? Newt wanted to see her? It was a sweet thought, but Elizabeth didn't know what her reaction was supposed to be. After the accident, did he think he could just jump back in like everything was normal?

"Elizabeth, are you okay?" Snow's hands were suddenly on her shoulders, steadying her. He smelled like smoke and musk, nothing at all like Newt, "You're shaking!"

"I'm sorry, I'm okay," Elizabeth straightened and curled her toes to steady herself. "Thanks for telling me, Snow. I'll go see him. Can you let Zart know for me? I told him I was going to see Gally but he'll start getting suspicious if I'm not back before too long."

"Sure thing," Snow said, still giving her a weird look. Gally, on the other hand, looked incredibly satisfied with himself. Elizabeth rolled her eyes. Leave it to Gally to feel proud about prying into her life and shaking her up.

Not that she was shaken.

---

Snow watched Elizabeth walk away, his eyes gravitating towards her hips. Every time she moved he imagined those hips against his own, the soft velvet of her skin...

"Something wrong, shank?" Gally's voice interrupted Snow from his thoughts. He didn't feel bad about lusting after the only girl in the Glade. She knew the way he felt about her, he had told her already. And besides, he knew for a fact that he wasn't the only Glader who had feelings for her. Maybe none of them showed any interest, but that didn't mean they didn't think about the female Glader. This place was filled with shucking men for klunk's sake.

"What's up with her, she seemed jumpy for some reason?" he asked Gally. The burly boy just shrugged and started walking away. He wasn't much of a talker. In fact, he seemed to avoid talking to people at all costs, sticking to simply staring-or glaring-at them, instead. Snow shrugged his shoulders and started back for the gardens. Zart was probably upset about the lack of a crew on duty, but hey, that was life. He couldn't always be everywhere at once, no matter how much he wanted to or tried to be.

---

Alby and Jeff were waiting outside the Medhut when Elizabeth arrived, talking quietly with each other. Alby nodded at her when she walked up.

"How's the hangover?" he asked, grinning. Elizabeth winced and Jeff cocked his head.

"Just take it easy. You can go on in, he's not asleep or anything," said. Elizabeth thanked him but didn't move. Alby pushed himself off the wall and opened the door for her with a shake of his head. Elizabeth looked at Jeff and he gave her a funny sort of smile and then she followed Alby in, feeling awkward.

"You have a visitor, Newt." Alby scratched the back of his head and moved so Elizabeth could see him. He was sitting up in a cot, looking the same as ever, the only difference being his broken leg that lay out of the covers, wrapped in gauze and held in place with a stake. He looked up when Alby came in and his eyes locked on hers.

"Oh, thanks, Alby," Newt said, still looking at Elizabeth. Alby shrugged and went back outside, leaving the two of them in silence.

"Hi," Newt tried. Elizabeth blinked. For a minute she stood frozen in place, just staring at him. And then suddenly she was stumbling forward with tears in her eyes and a sob in her throat until his arms were around her and her face was pressed against his chest, against his beating, fully alive heart. His arms were around her and his breath was in her ear and all around her was the familiar scent of him, his words of comfort where she might have been comforting him, the warmth from his body, the fabric of his shirt. All around her was Newt, the man who was her best friend and closest confident. The man she had longed for ever since she realized her feelings for him had changed.

The man she was in love with.

She closed her eyes against the tears and held him tighter, as tightly as she could so as not to lose him, because she would not lose him. She refused to lose him. Something wet fell on the base of her neck and she realized that Newt was crying, too. He was shaking all over and saying "I'm so sorry, I'm sorry, Elizabeth, I'm sorry," over and over again. She felt sorry, too, but not nearly as much as she felt relieved. Not nearly as much as she felt a tenderness in her heart that bloomed across her chest and warmed her all the way to her toes.

"I will never leave you again," Newt said against her hair. Elizabeth smiled because she believed him. She smiled because through the tears and pain there was light and love and safety. She smiled because she loved him more than she ever thought it possible to love any one person, and with his words, she knew he loved her, too.