I waited outside the Map Room for Minho, I had seen him and Ben come through the doors and head straight for the little concrete building.

The door creeked open, Ben and Minho stepped out deep in conversation, their faces serious. Minho ran a hand through his hair and sighed. He nodded his head at Ben. Minho goraned and shook his head and did a double take.

His face broke out I to a huge smile. Ben frowned and then followed where Minho was looking and he smiled wildly too.

"Hey Tiger!" Minho waved, walking over.

"Charlie! Hope you weren't waiting by the tree all day!" Ben chuckled.

"Nah, I was causing all sorts of mayham and ruckus today. Got a guy thrown into the slammer. It was quite the day."

"Okay slow your roll! Sit down and tell us everything!" Minho plunked down pulled me with him.

I groaned holding my ribs.

"Oh shuck! Sorry! How are those doing? What did Jeff say?" Minho asked.

"Two weeks of light duties, and another follow up. But says I'm good."

"Now onto the good stuff! I want the juicy details!" Ben's face lit up in excitement.

I chuckled and told them what happened, even what the guy said, word for word. Minho's jaw had dropped and Ben looked shocked.

"Shanks have been saying that stuff to you? Shuck it Charlie! I didn't know it's been so rough for you! I can understand why you avoid the dinning areas and people." Ben frowned, he sounded genuinely sorry.

I liked Ben. He had a kind heart, and seemed to wear his emotions on his face. When he was happy you knew when he was angry you knew. And right now he looked genuinely sorry for me.

"Well glad Gally did something with that skint head. I woulda let him have one to the face first...but..."

"Trust me. I wanted to. But I was a good little girl."

"Shuck that klunk. You don't need to be a good girl. Be a bad ass boss bitch!" Minho said fiercely.

Ben and I glanced at each other and tried to hold a snicker back.

"Did...did you just say...badass-"

"Boss bitch. Yes I did. Gotta a problem with that, Shank?" Minho asked lofty.

"No no. Just didn't think I'd hear that out of your mouth!" Ben laughed.

Minho rolled his eyes. And then pointed at me. I leaned back on my hands and raised an eyebrow at him.

"Have you got an answer for me?"

I nodded. I glanced at Ben who was looking back and forth between us. Minho glanced at Ben and waved a hand.

"He's fine, Ben knows. I talked it out with him." Minho waved his hand dismissively again. He placed his elbows on his knees and leaned forwards.

"So? What's your answer?"

I nodded my head. "Yes. I accept. All though, I've been thinking this afternoon, I won't be able to actually do anything for at least another two weeks...can we keep it quiet for a little while?"

Minho tapped his chin thoughtfully.

"Does it have to pass the council? Or can we go talk to Alby and just have him agree. You know most of those guys would rather see me washing laundry then doing something else."

"Very true Tiger." Minho nodded again thoughtfully.

"Maybe start training secretly? Show her the Map Room, get her comfortable with that part and klunk in the evenings." Ben suggested slowly.

I could feel the adrenaline and excitement, I liked their idea, I was getting on board with this. These two Runners believed in me, Alby had my back, I couldn't see how he would say no.

__________________________

Minho, Ben and I were standing in the smaller council room waiting for Alby.

The door open and Alby can strolling in. He looked a little harassed. He threw himself into a chair and groaned.

"Be the leader they said...it would be fun they said."

"Well whoever They are...needs a snack to the face." I said evenly.

Alby eyed me up and his lip twitched.

"That they do Snips. That they do." He sat up straighter and folded his arms, looking between the three of us.

"This here," he pointed a finger at the three of us, "looks like trouble."

"I want to train Charlie as a Runner." Minho said flatly. "And I want to do it quietly, 'cause the Glad sucks and the Shuck Faces inside the Glade suck even more." Minho said, very pointedly.

Alby didn't say anything, he sat still, looking at him for a few moment, and then slowly looked at me. Looking me up and down. He looked back and Minho.

"You vouch for her?"

Minho nodded without hesitation.

"She can work with Fry until her ribs are cleared by Jeff. We'll do evenings in the Map Room, then Ben and I will train her in the Maze."

Alby hummed. Then looked back at me. I couldn't read his expression.

"You want to do this Snips? It's a tough job."

"Yes." I nodded folding my arms, "absolutely I can."

"All right. Im sure you got enough people tellin' you you can't. I already gave you a lecture on the dangers of being a Runner. You obviously changed your mind from our tour."

I grinned sheepishly at him, and shrugged.

"Ops?"

He shook his head with an ammused smile.

"Nah, it's been three weeks, and you've had it harder than anyone. And I've never seen Minho this adimant about training a runner, not since Newt and Ben. So... congratulations, Snips. You're a Runner." Alby stood up and put a large hand on my shoulder he gave it a squeeze.

"Heal those ribs. Work with Fry. Jeff asked if you could help out on supply days, organizing and figuring out what we need." Alby said, still with his hand on my shoulder.

"I can do that." I smiled up at him.

His dark eyes crinkled into a smiled. His bright white teeth showed.

"Your a good kid, Snips. Sorry this has been a pile of Klunk."

"As long as I have a few of you who have my back, I'll be okay."

He squeezed my shoulder one last time and nodded. He walked to the door and paused, he glanced over his shoulder at me.

"Also...if you happen to slip and a Glader ends up with a black eye or split lip...I had no idea what it was about."

"Noted. And we never had this conversation." I smiled cheekily.

"What conversation?" Alby asked.

I laughed and he left the room.

"TIGER!" Minho yelled, and punch my shoulder, making me stumble and hiss in pain, I got my balance and grabbed my side.

"Ops. Sorry." He grinned sheepishly.

"Come on! Come eat supper with the rest of the runners." Ben suggested, pulling my arm.

"Good that!" Minho nodded.

_______________________

I walked between Minho and Ben, feeling slightly awkward, but clamping my jaw shut and my emotions shoved down, holding my supper tray. Ben slid onto the bench. I went to follow but Minho held me back, we stood at the end of the table.

"Hey! You shuck faces!" Minho barked at the table. The guys all looked over.

"Charlie, these are The Runners. They don't talk much, but their good guys. There at the end is Nick, and then Leroy, Jasper, Kev, Jax and Allen, are the main runners. And then we have two subs, if ever needed, Devon and Jonny and you know Ben."

I nodded my head at each guy, they waved when Minho called their name. Each one of them looked mildly interested, but then that was it, none of them looked at me with lust or greed. None of them scoffed when I sat down. The boy across from me, he had jet black hair and startling green eyes. He nodded his head.

"So, how do you find the Glad so far Charlie?"

"Do you really want me to answer that honestly?"

He sniggered into his fork full of mashed potatoes.

Talking to these guys felt, easy. They asked me questions, but didn't snear it gawk or make me feel weird. They were quite accepting of me. I leaned over to Minho and whispered, "how come you didn't introductme to these guys before? They treat me like a human!"

He shrugged. And I rolled my eyes.

I actually enjoyed supper. They included me in their conversations. I was almost done eating when I felt someone watching me. I glanced around quickly, trying to figure it out, when I looked back around I saw steel blue eyes stairing straight at me.

Gally was staring at me like he was trying to read my soul. My breath caught in my throat. I couldn't read his expression, there were too many things flickering in his eyes. I furrowed my eyebrows, trying to figure it out. I was still stairing back. I felt trapped in this staring contest. His eyes were pulling me, and I didn't want to break it. I felt my face heating up, and my heart beat picked up it's pace.

What the shuck is wrong with me?

It's just Noradrenaline, Dopamine and Phenylethylamine. The Chemicals in your brain causing this.

My head vibrated, and that voice was back.

"The shuck?!" I yelped.

Just as fast as the voice and vibrating appeared, it was gone. I felt the comfortable presenc of the voice and now I felt empty again.

A few heads at the table turned to look at me funny, but didn't say anything. Minho frowned and leaned closer, "you okay Tiger?"

"Yeah..yeah..I'm fine. Just... don't know..tired I guess." I muttered shrugging my shoulders.

He patted my shoulder with a knowing nod.

"We'll start tomorrow." He nodded.

"Good that."

_________________________

The day went faster than I expected it to. I got up with Newt, had breakfast with the Runners and Keepers, helped Fry and Vinny and Tim in the kitchen for the day. Fry had me sitting and prepping grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch. Fred showed up with a huge crate of fresh tomatoes in the afternoon, so I made a huge batch of spaghetti sauce. Vinny did all the heavy lifting for me. Fry shooed me out of the kitchen, saying light duties were over for the day.

I meet up with Minho and Ben as they came from the Map Room.

"Ooo, supper smells good!" Ben took a huge dramatic inhale.

"Hope it tastes good." I muttered.

"Did you make it?"

I nodded.

We grabbed our plates and Minho led us to the Runners table again.

Jax, the black haired kid with bright green eyes slid over giving me some room.

"Thanks."

"No worries." He had stuffed his face full of spaghetti and his green eyes just about exploded from his head. He swallowed.

"Wholly Shuck! Fry out did himself today! This is shucken fantastic!"

"It wasn't Fry. It was Tiger!" Ben corrected him.

"Who?"

"Charlie. She made the sauce."

"Wholly Shuck! Charlie this is shucken amazing! Dude! I don't think I've ever had such good spaghetti!" He gushed.

And promptly shoved another mouth full. The rest of the table all through their complements out. And I smiled. It faded though when I caught sight of steel blue eyes that looked murderous. Gally was watching me again from the Keepers table. Yesterday they looked troubled sad almost. Today they looked angry. But angry at what? At me?

Gally ripped his eyes away from me and back down to his plate.

"Hey, what cha staring at?"

"Nothing Minho." I said quietly.

I could hear the sadness in my voice. And I knew he picked up on it too, because he frowned at me, and then out of the corner of my eye I saw him raise his head and try and see what I was looking at. I felt my body sag. Why was I feeling so sad about this? Ever since I ripped him apart at breakfast, he has avoided me. Not that I was out looking for him, but even when we're were in close proximity to each other he would pretend I wasn't there. I didn't know what hurt more, the angry glaring or the ignoring.

A hand was waving in my face, and I blinked and looked around. Minho was frowning even more.

"You spaced. You do that a lot, don't you?"

I shrugged.

"Well anyways. You done eating? We can get started."

I hoped up, dumped my plate in the kitchen and left the dinning area with Ben and Minho. I felt those blue eyes on me every single step out of the area and into the Glade and into the setting sun. Minho and Ben wrapped an arm around me, squishing me between them.

"Guys! Carful of the ribs." I warmed.

"Noted!" Ben chuckle.

"You are now part of the team, the Squade we are a trio now. So, get used to all the rediculousness of us." Minho said, throwing an arm out.

"So your not the big tough scary Runner, everyone thinks you are?"

"Nah. It's all a show." Ben laughed, "he's actually quite the shuck face! And he saves it all for the maze. Trust me...if you don't die from all the running...his dad jokes will kill you."

Minho scoffed, "Pfft. Please Ben. My jokes are hilarious! Oh shuck!" He frowned, and rubbed his forehead, "I forgot what I was going to say. Tiger? Could you JOG my memory?"

He paused and looked at me. I groaned. And put my face into my hand and shook it.

"Welcome to my world Charlie!" Ben groaned.

"Ahh you guys love me!"

"Don't push it." I deadpanned.

He gasped and held his heart. Ben threw his head back laughing.

"Oh, Charlie, your going to be a great asset to this team!" He grinned down at me.

They had made it to the Map Room.

"All right my young Padawan, you are about to learn from the Grandmaster and the Master."

Minho had stepped in front of the door and turned towards me, his arms crossed, all the humor he just had on his face was gone, replaced by the hard look I fist saw on his face my first day here.

"Listen. Learn. And ask questions. There are no dumb questions-"

"Weeeelll...." Ben interupted.

"Shush. Benny! I'll demote you from Jedi Master to Knight or youngling!" Minho scolded.

I stood with my hands in my back pockets, an amused look on my face, trying hard to not laugh. I enjoyed their bickering and their relaxed friendship. It was refreshing.

"Okay. Charlie, Tiger...welcome to The Map Room." Minho said dramatically as he twisted the big metal handle and pushed the heavy door opened.

_____________________________________________

**Ooooo! Is Gally Jealous??**
**Charlie for Runner? Or will something happen and she be a cook?**