I do not own The Maze Runner or any of its characters

Peter: While Lauren's out, I have to assume the role of being Gally's "anger diffuser."
*window breaks*
Peter: *winces* I'm not very good at it.

Peter
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Jonathan came to see Lauren the next day.

"Can I come in?" He peeked around the door.

"Yeah, it's okay." I was still in the chair I had sat down on yesterday.

"Oh, wow."

"Yeah." I sighed.

"When did it happen?" He grabbed the other chair.

"Yesterday."

"Is she okay? Did she get the Serum?"

"Yeah. She stopped screaming, so I'm guessing it's working."

"I heard." It suddenly became awkward. "Can you confirm a rumor?"

The question took me off guard. "Uh, sure."

"Did she do this to herself?"

"Uh-" How do you answer that? Do you tell the truth, or do you lie and say she got tangled up with a Griever? I couldn't see a possibility that didn't end up bad for Lauren.

"What kind of a shucking question is that, Jonathan?" Gally came in.

"I-I was just asking, Gally. There's been a rumor circling saying that she did this for attention, or just to make her seem tougher."

I almost felt bad for Jonathan. Almost. But he should've known better than to ask that in front of Gally, of all people. I felt myself shrinking, scooting closer to Lauren as if she could protect me from Gally's rage.

"Getting Stung by a Griever for attention?  You've been here as long as Peter and I have; you've seen what it does to people. And you really think that Lauren would do it for attention? That's the stupidest shucking thing I've ever heard. Use your head, shank."

In all honesty, I wanted to stand up for Jonathan. I really did. But it didn't seem like the smartest choice right now.

"I think it's good if I leave." Jonathan stood up. "Bye, Peter."

"Bye."

Gally ended up glaring at him as he walked past.

"How's she doin'?" He assumed his regular position of sitting in the chair and grabbing Lauren's hand.

I rubbed my face. "She's stopped screaming. But she's still not looking so great. Clint told me it's a good sign, though. That she stopped screaming, I mean."

Sometimes, I swear Lauren gave Gally some lessons on reading people because he's picking up on the littlest things. The fact that I rubbed my face or that my voice was slightly quieter.

"You're tired. Go take a nap." He was using his 'Listen to me, or I'll mess you up' voice.

"I'm fine." But the idea sounded wonderful.

"No, you're not. Go. There's a cot in my room, on the third floor. I'll wake you up for dinner." Shuck. He even pulled out the Look.

"All right." I was too tired to fight. "But I'm only going because Lauren would murder me if she found out that I put her before my own health."

"Good that."

I managed to find Gally's room and collapsed on the cot.

Gally
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"Hey." A voice next to me said.

I jumped.

"Lauren? How-"

"I wanna say I'm sorry." She looked down at our hands, but neither of us pulled away.

"It's alright." I was still upset, but she needed to go back to sleep.

"That's good." Lauren closed her eyes and was out within seconds.

Peter
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"Peter! Get up!" Gally was banging on the door.

"All right!" Throwing the covers back, I started tugging on my boots. "Did you really have to be that violent?"

"Lauren woke up."

"She did?!" She only got Stung yesterday.

"She fell back asleep, though. It was a little bit after you left." Gally said before I opened the door to her room.

"Did she say anything?" I turned to look at him.

"She just apologized."

"Of course, she would apologize."

"Yeah." We went downstairs.

Getting thrown into being Gally's anger diffuser, you had to be able to pick up the signs that he was going to start a fight very easily. Unfortunately, I'm still in the learning stages. This is most likely the reason that I missed this one.

Of all of the shanks in the Glade, Zeus really really took the crown of being the most annoying one. He had one of his buddies with him when he walked up to Gally and me.

"Looks like your girlfriend got herself Stung. I always knew she fit the stereotype of being a dumb blonde." It now truly hit me why Lauren hated the guy so much.

Gally tensed. I slowly started stepping on his foot, trying to make sure he didn't get himself Banished.

"What? You not gonna say anything?"

"You finally found enough courage to come to talk to us now that Lauren's not around? I knew I should have pegged you as a coward earlier." I said so that Gally didn't say something he'd regret.

Zeus's face darkened. "I'm not afraid of some girl."

Even after I was crushing Gally's foot, he still talked. "Maybe you should. We wouldn't want another Henry." He leaned in closer to Zeus. "And if you ever come near us, or her, again, I'll make sure to dig a very deep hole in the Deadheads. Good that?"

"Good that." Zeus walked off.

"He's such a shank," I commented.

"Yeah."

We walked to our normal table.

|~^-^~|

Chuck came to see Lauren on the third day she was resting. 

"Can I come in?"

I looked up to see the kid hesitantly walking into the room. "Yeah, sure, Chuck."

"Oh, wow." He sat in the other chair, looking nervous.

"Is that everyone's go-to response?"

"Huh?"

"Nevermind." I forgot that Chuck hadn't been sitting in this chair for three days, talking to everyone that came in.

"Is she going to be okay?"

"Clint said she's looking better every day. So, yeah. She'll be alright."

Some might say lying is bad. And sure, it might be bad in some scenarios, but I felt like this one needed it. Telling Chuck the truth would do more harm than good.

"That's good."

"Yep."

It was even more awkward than when Jonathan was here yesterday. Chuck took the hint and walked out of the room, saying a small bye.

The next day, Lauren started to regain her normal skin color and mumble in her sleep. Jeff was able to get a journal, and Alby instructed me to write down anything I could understand. I couldn't write down much, but I didn't think he cared. He wanted anything he could get.

Even Gally was in a happier mood.

Although he did almost blow up.

It was day four of Lauren's recovery, and Clint took Gally aside into an empty room. Which just happened to be the one right next to Lauren and me. I may or may not have scooted my chair closer to the wall to hear better.

"Hey, man. I just wanted to let you know I was never for this idea, alright? There's no reason to give me the silent treatment as if I forced Lauren to get Stung."

"She still went off into the Maze, though." I could see Gally crossing his arms in my mind's eye. 

Clint scoffed. "What was I supposed to do, tie her up, and throw her into the Slammer? She's still a human who's capable of making her own decisions. It's not our job to control her every move."

"You could've tried harder. Or you could have gotten Peter or me to talk her out of it."

"I wasn't going to betray her trust like that. Lauren truly believed she was doing something good. And she didn't even get hurt."

I sucked in my breath. That's where Clint messed up.

"She didn't get hurt?! She got Stung, for shuck's sake! You know the death count of it!" It felt like the windows were rattling.

"Don't you think I told her that? Don't you think I told her that I wasn't going to help her with this? That girl over there can get two cookies out of Frypan and managed to talk back to Alby and get away with just a slap on the hand? Don't you think that she used every single ounce of manipulation she possesses to talk me into helping her with the plan?

"You act like you're the only person who cares about Lauren, but you don't realize she has a much larger friend group than just you and Peter. I'm done trying to apologize to you." The door opened and shut with a slam.

My chair was back in its original place faster than you could say 'Oh shuck.'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In this house, we stan Clint and Jeff.

But like "POP OFF, SIS"
Clint really did just show Gally his place in the Glade.

I love my smol bean.

Questions!!!

-Did your respekt for Clint go up??

-How many of you were staring at your screens like 0-0

-How many of you were Peter in this situation like *slowly moves chair to the wall*

I LOVED writing this so MUCH like