The council room was silent. Every eye was on Thomas now. He stood up and crossed his arms.

"Can I defend myself now? Thanks." before anyone could stop him he started talking, his tone was harsh and snappy. I felt kind of proud of it, like my snark and bad attitude rubbed off on him last night.

"Look! I didn't do anything wrong. All I know is I saw people struggling to get inside these walls and they couldn't make it. To ignore that because of some stupid rule seemed selfish, cowardly, and..."

He paused and frowned, waving his hand around trying to find the right word.

"...well, just stupid. If you want to throw me in jail for trying to save someone's life, then go ahead." He looked Gally dead in the eyes and continued, but he had some attitude and sass behind his next sentence. "Next time, I promise I'll point at them and laugh, then go eat some supper." Thomas finished, with a dramatic eye roll and flopped back into his chair, folding his arms.

"I'm so proud of that sarcasm." I pretended to wipe a tear.

Thomas just grunted, a frustrated growl on his face.

"Well, I think Shank's got more guts than I've fired up from every pig and cow in the last year." Frypan paused, as if expecting a laugh, but none came, he sighed and threw his flour coated hands into the air. "And Jessie? We all know she's a tough cookie, she does her job well, keeps to herself, sure fights off stupid shanks when they get too comfortable with her, but she's followed all the rules... ain't her fault she's here. How stupid is this- he helps save Alby's life, helps kill a couple of Grievers, and we're sitting here yappin' about what to do with him. And what about the other two? Why are they up there like its a disciplinary hearing? As Chuck would say, this is a pile of klunk."

I smiled fondly at Fry. He always had a way of making situations feel not so bad, he had a carefree laid back kind of attitude. He smiled back at me.

"What's your recommendation Fry?" Newt sighed, waving his hand as if he could speed this up.

"Put 'em both on the council and have them train us on what they did different out there!"

There was an uproar from the Gladers behind. And some of the Keepers were arguing with each other.

I leaned towards Thomas and whispered, "Man you and me got em real rattled. What else can we do to fuck shit up?"

Thomas tried to hold back a laugh.

"SLIM IT YOU SLINT HEADS!" Newt screamed. The room slowly settled down, tempers were high, the tension in the room higher. "Shut your holes and you will be asked your opinion in buggen' turn!" He pointed to the next Keeper, the keeper of the baggers.

"I think he should be punished. No offense," he shrugged at Thomas, "but Newt, you're the one always harping about order. If we don't punish him, we'll set a bad example. He broke our Number One Rule. But after that make him a runner. And as far as Jessie? She didn't break a rule, she's a runner. Sure she's a chick, and a little unorthodox, she can kick all our asses and take down a Griever. Why punish that? Like Minho said...she's better than most of us!" he shrugged.

"At least someone has a brain." I muttered.

"Easy for you to say, your not getting punished." Thomas muttered back.

"Meh one night in the slammer, it's not that bad. I did it."

Minho leaned over, "she did not. She broke out half way through the night and slept the rest of the night in bed."

"True. I did do that." I nodded with a cheeky smile.

Newt pointed to Gally. Gally stood up his chest heaving slightly, his face was red. He was looking straight ahead, and not at anyone. He was silent for a moment.

"You got an oppion Captain Gally. Spit it out." Minho snapped.

"Just think about it," Gally began. "This slinthead comes up in the Box, acting all confused and scared. A few days later, he's running around the Maze with Grievers, acting like he owns the place. I...I think he's a spy from the people who put us here. We can't trust this shank," He stared.

I sat there, unmoving, blinking a few times, trying to process his theory, I knew he didn't trust Thomas, but this seemed a bit extreme. Gally continued.

"Day after he shows up, a coma girl comes, clutching that freaky note. We find a dead Griever. Thomas conveniently finds himself in the Maze for the night, then tries to convince everyone he's a hero. How do we know it was the Greenie who tied Alby up there?"

Gally's face was red, his chest was heaving, yet his face was empty of emotion, "you want to throw them a parade? Fine by me! Go right ahead! But if there is one thing I know about the Maze is that"-

I cut him off by standing up and jumping over the table, and getting right in his face, and said with a cold calmness. Minho had come after me standing right behind me, his arms folded eyes narrowed, and jaw clenched.

"Gally, you're nothing but a sissy who has probably never, not once, asked to be a Runner or tried out for it. You don't have the right to talk about things you don't understand. So shut your mouth."

Gally stood there frozen, unmoving, unblinking, it was very uncharacteristic of the hot headed Glader. By now he would have taken a swing or two. I was almost hoping he would.

"Say one more thing like that and I'll break your neck, right here in front of everybody." Gally said, spit flew from his mouth as he spoke, but it was robotic and deadpanned.

He wasn't looking at me or Minho in the eye, he was staring straight ahead, at the back wall.

I wiped the spit from my face, as did Minho.  Minho flicked his eyes up and down Gally, and he sneered, and with the palm of his hand he shoved Gally in the face,

"I swear, Gally," Minho said his voice was calm and collected, but deep and menacing, it made his threat even more intimidating
as Gally sprawled onto the floor, "don't ever threaten me or Jessie again. Don't ever speak to me or my girl. Ever. If you do, I'll break your shuck neck, right after I'm done with your arms and legs. And I have no control over what Jessie will do to you!"

Gally scrambled to his feet, he tried to charge Minho. But with my speed, even with a bandaged leg, knocked him to the ground and pinned his arms behind his back, holding him in a full submission hold. It happened so fast no one reacted to me taking Gally down. I wasn't hurting him, I just made sure he didn't attack Minho or anyone else.

The room went into chaos. Again.

Newt, Fry and Winston had jumped up and scrambled over. I let go and got up. The guys got Gally up and slammed him back into a chair. Minho pulled me into his chest.

"Dang woman that was shucken hot." He whispered into my hair as he hugged me close. I wrapped my arms around his waist and hummed, with a smirk.

"Bloody hell!" Newt yelled, throwing his hands into the air. "You're all a bunch of buggen' children!"

We let go of each other and I limped back to my chair. Minho took my wrapped leg and placed it on his lap.

"OKAY! Well...that was bloody dramatic, don't you think?" Newt asked Minho and me pointedly.

Minho and I shrugged in unison. Minho leaned back lazily, gently drawing circles with his thumb on my bare skin on my leg. Gally didn't say anything, just crossed his arm, and clenched his jaw, staring at the wall with his dead vacunt eyes.

"We still need to decide what to do with the buggen' Shank. Gally you want punishment. Banishment is NOT on the table." Newt said crossing his arms.

Gally huffed, he finally looked at Thomas, murder in his eyes, he pointed at him.

"You see what he's trying to do, right? First he breaks our rules." Gally flung another accusatory finger at me, "BOTH of them don't follow rules. And now they're trying to convince us to abandon them totally. The rules are the only thing that have ever held us together. Why now are we questioning that? If Alby was here, you know he'd agree with me. This shank needs to be punished. And something needs to be done about HER!"

"You're right. Thomas broke the rules. One night in the pit, and no food." Newt said with finality, folding his arms.

"Come on, Newt! One night in the pit?" Gally yelled, jumping to his feet, "Do you think that's gonna stop him from breaking the rules again and going into the maze?"

"That's more punishment than YOU got for breaking the same rule! And, No. We can't just have non-runners, running into the maze whenever they feel like it. So let's just make this official." Newt turned to Thomas for the first time and addressed him. "Starting from tomorrow, you're a runner."

There was another uproar from the Gladers. Most were cheering, some protested, most Gally's builders. Thomas sat stunned. Minho and I smirked at each other. He held a hand up for a high five. Which I slapped.

Everyone was talking over each other again. "HEY! I'M NOT DONE!" Newt yelled over top of the voices. "SIT DOWN!" He stormed up and down the room again.

"No one tells me what to do!" A few Gladers called.

I slipped my leg from Minho's grip and climbed up onto the table.

"Sit your asses down. Now." I snarled.

Everyone sat. I crossed my arms with a smirk. Minho stood up and held a hand out, I took it and jumped off the table, landing without putting weight on my injured leg.

"Thank you." Newt nodded.

"You're welcome Newton."

"With Alby..." he cleared his throat, "out of bloody commission for a while, I step in as Leader. Now I need a second in command. I appoint Jessie for my second."

I froze and turned my head to look at Newt, I raised my eyebrows. Minho laughed, throwing his head back and slapped his knee. Frypan Winston and Chuck stood up clapped and cheered.

"You," I pointed at Newt, "want me," I pointed at myself, "to boss those idiots around?" I pointed to the Gladers, with raised eyebrows in slight shock.

Newt smirked folded his arms.

"You just told all these shanks to sit. And they sat...like trained dogs." He pointed out. I smirked.

"Well all right." I grinned. "There needs to be some buggen' order around here." Doing a horrible impression of Newt's accent.

Gally got up, throwing Newt Minho, me and Thomas nasty looks. "WOW Newt." And stormed out. Fry tried to stop him

"NO FRY! NO." 

He stormed out of the room, the door slammed shut behind him.

"Gathering dismissed! Off to work ya bloody shanks!" Newt cried.

Keepers helped herd the Gladers out of the meeting room. Once it was just the four of us Newt deflated. Thomas had sat stunned.

"That was your plan wasn't it? Make our wonderful intelligent idiot a runner?" I grinned at Minho.

"Shuck ya! Never ever would I EVER give up Keeper. Shuck no! Aim high hit low." Minho winked.

"Tommy? You okay mate?" Newt asked.

"Yeah. Yeah I'm good!" Thomas blinked a few times and then shook his head, looking up at the three of us.

"So what's the buggen' plan? All your runners actually quite this morning."

"They what?" Minho and I roared. Anger hit me so fast it was like waking into a wall.

"Yeah...after they got Alby down...all of 'em but Jason."

"Fucking cowards!"

Minho had his jaw clenched and it was doing that thing that made my stomach do loopdey loops. Thomas frowned.

"Uh oh. Our beloved idiot is thinking..." I muttered.

"Shh." Newt scolded. Minho's lip twitched.

But he had that far away look and he was chewing his lip. I could hear the wheels turning.

"Those Grievers we killed..." He said slowly.

"What about 'em?"

"We need to go check them out."

"Uh why? I have a hot girlfriend, I don't need to go check anything else out." Mi ho said dryly.

I smirked and Newt groaned. Thomas rolled his eyes.

"No... aren't you curious about them?" Thomas had slowly started to get up.

"No." He said and crossed his large arms.

"But..." Thomas trailed off, he spun on his heel and headed for the door. Minho and I glanced at each other and then at Newt. Who shrugged.

"Dammit. This idiot is more impulsive than me!" I muttered.

"And that's saying something."

With a smirk and a scoff we turned and hurried after Thomas. Minho ran in front of him and placed a hand on his chest to slow him down. "Hey, hey, where're you going?"

"Back into the maze." Thomas said with a straight face, looking at the maze doors, he kept walking.

"Hey, Thomas." Minho followed with an eye roll, stepping in front of Thomas again. "What is this with you, huh? A death wish? You just got out and now you want back in?"

"We only had a few hours sleep. Your shucken body needs rest. How tall are you again?" I asked crossing my arms.

"I'm 6 feet- wait! Jessie! Stop! I'm not that stupid."

"You're a little stupid."

"He is kinda." Minho agreed.

Thomas just rolled his eyes huffed and continued on like we just didn't call him stupid. "Newt said that no one has ever seen a Griever and lived to tell about it, right?"

"Wrong." I statted. "I've seen them quite a bit and lived."

"Not...not exactly what I mean .." he said slowly and then frowned. He turned to Minho trying to plead his case. "Minho, now we have one. You're telling me you're not even a bit curious?" Thomas threw his hands towards the maze doors, in exasperation.

"Not really, no. Last time we had a dead Griever it stung Alby. I almost lost Jessie and she ended up needing Cowboy surgery." Minho snarked, just as frustrated.

"All in all, not the greatest outcome." I summed up.

Thomas took another step. Minho rolled his eyes and stepped closer to Thomas, a hand on his chest to stop him again. "So, what's the plan? You're going out and gonna dissect that thing all by yourself?" Minho challenged, raising an eyebrow.

"I will if I have to! It's about time we find out what we're up against."

Thomas looked at me. I kept a passive expressionless face.

"Sounds like a terrible plan."

Thomas's face fell.

"What time?" I asked, with a wicked twisted smile. I'll admit this guy when he first came up was annoying, arragent and didn't know when to stop...he still didn't know when to stop, but it now had a focus, and I was starting to appreciate his determination and his shuck all you I do what I want approach to life.

"We could go now?" He suggested.

I checked my watch. And glanced at Minho. He still looked exhausted. And I felt exhausted. I was reckless. But not in this situation. It needed to be done properly.

"No, I don't think today. Let's wait until tomorrow morning. Thst way we have the day and the doors won't close soon. We have more time to look. And we all need some more food and sleep."

Thomas looked like he was going to protest again. But shut his mouth when I narrowed my eyes and growled slightly.

"If that Griever isn't dead like the last one or friends show up, you need all the energy to fight and run. And if it is dead, it won't be going anywhere. Trust me. Now Go. Eat. Have another nap. Newt's putting you in the slammer tonight, and tomorrow bright and early we will grab a few brave Gladers and Minho and I will help dissect it. Good that?"

Thomas deflated even more. He looked so forlorn.

"Thomas, my intelligent Idiot.'' I said, my voice still firm, but I wasn't scolding him anymore. "It's a good idea! It's a great idea!  We just need rest. And Minho's gotta show you the mysterious Map Room. Good that?"

"Fine." He relented.

"Good. Now go find Frypan and get some food, have a nap. We'll show you the map room this afternoon."

I crossed my arms and watched him turn and trudge away.

"Dang Jess. You're a natural born leader."

"No. Most guys are just scared of me."

"Good thing I'm not most guys." He growled, stepping closer and grabbing hips, turning me and pulling me into his chest.

"I think it's time for a nap." I mumbled against his lips.

"Good thinking."

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Just for fun 😜

× Jessie at the Council meeting ×

×Minho at the Council meeting ×