Night was quickly approaching, and although it previously seemed they were being held by Lawrence's group like hostages, they were more like guests now. 

They were set up in a few bedrooms for the night, all simple but perfectly comfortable. Ada found herself sharing a room with Brenda, which she was happy with. She'd feel a little nervous if she was going to be left alone.

The girl also happened to miss the explosive argument between Thomas and Newt which ended in the blonde boy shoving the other against the wall quite violently. She was now aware of how angry Newt really was about Thomas' reluctance to work with Teresa, considering it would help them get Minho back, but she was unaware of the actual reason why.

Of course, Newt loved Minho, but that wasn't the complete reason. He had the Flare.

He made them all aware of it when Ada and Gally returned from their small catch up, gathering them around the table used for strategizing, and refusing to make eye contact. The girl could feel her eyes burning with furious tears, but wouldn't let herself cry when she could see everyone else staying so strong.

No one spoke as he explained when he most likely got infected, how he wanted to focus on getting Minho back, and that he wasn't their current priority. No matter how much they wanted to argue, they didn't.

Newt was stubborn. And when it came to Minho, his mind would be even more impossible to change. They'd just have to figure out a way to save him too: and hope that he would let them save him.

He awkwardly left after he finished talking, to avoid any questions being fired his way. But no one really had questions. All they wanted to do - at least in Ada's case - was hug him and never let go.

She knew there was a possibility that he would yell at her for doing so, but she found herself gravitating towards him. She felt like she needed to speak to him, as though she wanted to savour it before she couldn't do it anymore.

Ada strolled over towards the blonde, who was staring dreamily at the rose bush across the room from them. She said nothing as she rested just by his side, waiting for him to initiate the conversation. She didn't want to overstep, especially considering what he was going through.

"Do you reckon there's tulips in the Safe Haven?" Newt wondered, his eyes resting just behind the girl and not on her.

"Tulips?" She asked curiously, tilting her head to one side when he looked at her. 

She realised then that he didn't want to talk about having the Flare, and so she would respect his wishes. He nodded to confirm her question, his lips turning up in the smallest smile as he explained,

"We never had them in the Glade. I always wanted some."

"I remember you saying that," She said with a soft smile, happily reminiscing. "On my first day in the Gardens."

"Right before you started talking about escaping the Maze with a bloody ladder."

They were left to chuckle about their antics back in the Glade, wishing they were still there, because it was just so much simpler. Although Newt was momentarily happy, the Flare was playing on the back of his mind and messing with his mind.

Ada wasn't there, but he freaked out on Thomas. He never would've done it had the Flare not pushed him to. All he could think about was Minho, and Thomas' reluctance to work with Teresa, and he snapped.

"I'm sure the Safe Haven does have tulips. We can make it our mission to find some."

He smiled then, as if imagining it, but it didn't reach his eyes. Because he was sure he wouldn't make it that far.

Frypan cooked for them that night. He was given a few cans of soup to work with, and soon enough the group were sat around a small fire set up in an outside section of Lawrence's place. It was reminiscent of their time spent in the Scorch, except this time they were joined by Brenda and Jorge. Gally had disappeared off somewhere, presumably to eat with the other guys part of Lawrence's group.

Ada settled down beside Frypan, who adamantly told her that she didn't have to help in cooking the food. She took over in serving up bowls of it to everyone, to help out in some way, and the boy simply just fell still and moved back in his seat to allow her to do it.

Once she had served everyone and herself, she sat back again besides Fry, who was watching her with a careful expression. They hadn't had time to talk in a while, which was a vast and weird change from the lengthy time they spent together in the Kitchens in the Glade.

One glance shared between the friends said that they had lots to catch up on. So much had happened in such a short amount of time, and there was no resting period for the two of them to be able to talk through everything.

And in this instance, this specifically meant that they hadn't yet had the time to talk about Gally. 

Not since the earlier incident with Brenda, anyway. Ada didn't really count this as her and Frypan being able to talk, as she viewed it more as an ambush on exposing her feelings for the boy returned from the dead.

And it wasn't only her that they had to talk about.

Frypan was one of Gally's closest friends. The boys knew each other longer than she had known either of them, and she knew that they had a friendship in the Glade worth salvaging now. It was obvious that Frypan missed his friend just as much as Ada did.

Well, considering the girl's considerable crush on Gally, maybe Frypan missed him a tiny bit less than she did.

"How are you feeling?" 

It was nice to finally talk. Their words were lost in the mix of the group all chattering over their food; murmurs of appreciation for the soup, talks of seeing Minho again, hopes of reaching the Safe Haven. Their conversation was irrelevant in comparison.

The girl let out a sigh, feeling content for a brief second. As she sat with her friends, she very scarcely forgot every threat of danger looming over them. And it was nice. 

In a bittersweet moment, a wave of reminders came crashing over her. Her friends' voices rose up in her hearing again, and her soft smile faded slightly.

"I'm okay." She felt this was the simplest response. A small lie, because she didn't want to really get into it. "How about you?"

Frypan shrugged, and for a split second before he spoke, Ada swore that he had experienced the same thing she just went through before answering. 

"Hopeful, I guess. About Minho."

Then, a small smile appeared on his lips and she felt a bit of hope settle in her chest at his optimism.

"How'd you feel about, you know, Gally? Not so dead after all."

He posed her the question carefully, before she had the chance to steer the conversation in any other direction. It wasn't that she wanted to avoid the questions about the boy, quite the opposite, it was just that she found her feelings hard to put into words.

"Weird." was the first word that came to her mind.

She thought about it properly then, the words forming in her mouth easier than she expected. She did manage to hold back on unleashing her deeper personal feelings out loud. She trusted Frypan with her life, but she was still heavily aware of the people around them.

"It's like - back in the Glade - when things started getting messy, I thought to myself that I could never see Gally surviving in a place other than the Glade, despite me wanting to get out of there with him. And now, here he is. Living out here. And it just works for him, you know? You can tell."

Frypan paused for a moment, finding himself agreeing with every word she said. Then, stirring his soup with his spoon, he asked her a more personal question.

"You still like him, don't you?"

She couldn't stop her cheeks from immediately flooding with colour, and Frypan smirked triumphantly. Checking again to see no one was listening, Ada simply just fixed him an unimpressed expression, not needing to respond.

"I wasn't kidding earlier, you know. He does really like you. Always did back in the Glade."

Ada's heart was fluttering far too fast to process Frypan's words properly. She felt like her brain was going to explode if she even thought about it. She set her bowl down beside her, scooting closer to the boy as if she was going to pour out her heart to him. And then,

"How are you feeling about Gally being back?"

Frypan let out a groan at her attempt to avoid the already very avoided topic. Throwing his free hand up in defeat, he sighed before answering.

"I'm fine. A little surprised, but fine. He was my friend; a good friend. After this, maybe everything can be okay again."

"Again?" She challenged, and found the boy giving her a questioning look in return. "Saying again insinuates that things were okay to begin with."

The Glade, no matter how communal and homely they made it, was never okay. It was torture. But the Safe Haven, wherever it was, could definitely be okay for them.

A thoughtful silence fell over them both again until Frypan loudly and accidentally clattered his spoon against the side of his bowl. The clinking was a vast contrast from the quiet, jerking them both out of the weird daze that Ada's deep words sent them into.

"Shuck, Ada, you can't use big words like 'insinuates' and expect me to understand."

As they giggled over Fry's words, the same topic was playing on both of their minds: Newt.

Neither mentioned it, as they were both far too afraid they'd say something and end up crying. They had the sort of friendship where they could cry on one another's shoulders, but admitting this fear to someone else would be like letting it become real. By keeping it internalised, they could at least try and pretend it didn't exist.

As the girl got into bed that night - which was a small mattress in a creaky bedframe shoved against a wall - she was still thinking about the blonde boy. She was far past the point of pretending her fears weren't real, but it was like there was a permanent lump in her throat, threatening to turn into sobs.

All she knew was that they had to at least find Minho before anything drastic happened to Newt.