Gally had grown since the last time Ada saw him. In many ways.

For one, his literal growth. What used to be four inches of height difference was now more like a foot. His hair was now buzzed short, his shoulders broader, his arms even more muscular. He seemed more mature and more knowledgeable, and Ada couldn't help but wonder what he had spent his time doing since he got out of the Maze.

And how had he survived?

It all seemed impossible. They watched Minho spear his chest. They watched him fall to the ground, lifelessly. So how was he here now?

"Gally?" Thomas murmured.

His shocked statement reminded Ada that other people were around them. When she had locked eyes with the boy believed to be dead, everyone else had fallen to the back of her mind. Gally looked guilty, his eyes reluctantly dropping away from her and back to Thomas.

Suddenly Thomas lunged at him. Smacking him directly across the face, Gally was sent flying to the floor, with the other boy still hovering over him and attempting to punch him. 

At first, Ada froze. 

Gally's presence had really thrown her. And she kind of thought that he deserved it. He killed Chuck, and somehow he had deceived them all into thinking he was dead.

It didn't occur to her that he may have been looking for them.

And then she felt like she could move again. She darted forwards at the lack of anyone else doing so, and pried Thomas from the boy, causing him to fall back onto the floor himself. As Newt also came forwards to calm Thomas down, Ada could turn to the attacked boy herself, and felt knots of nervousness bundling in her stomach.

Up close, as Gally pulled himself up from the floor, she could see his light freckles and the specks of green in his eyes. She had missed that. And although her heart was softening at the sight of him again after so long, she did something far different from greeting him happily.

She slapped him.

Thomas' attack on Gally had caused shouts and cries of panic and anguish. Ada's slap earned silence. Gally's hand trembled ever so slightly, unnoticeable, as it went up to sooth the stinging of his cheek. She regretted it in less than a second.

He then looked back to the girl, who was noticeably trembling, but whether it was from rage or nerves she had no idea. His face was painted in an expression of horror and pain, and as his hand came back down to be stuffed into his pocket, he questioned her.

"What the hell was that for?"

He hadn't questioned Thomas attacking him, because he didn't care. He cared about her. He always had and he always would.

She let out a laugh that sounded suspiciously like a choked sob. When she met his eyes again, he could've sworn there was a glint of tears in there, but she'd never admit it. 

The first time they met, he told her that he'd hate to get on her bad side. And here he was: on her bad side. 

And he was right, he hated it.

"What the hell was that for?" She repeated, spitefully. "For months, I thought you were dead, Gally! I mourned you. Why the shuck would you let me do that?"

As she berated him, she advanced forwards towards him. Before she could shove him out of anger, Frypan had put his hand on her shoulder and guided her away from the boy. The guards around Gally had pointed their guns once again at their group, most specifically at Ada, and the boy found himself flooding with panic.

"Don't aim at them, they're not gonna hurt us."

He knew how unconvincing the words sounded after the events that just occurred, but considering he knew them, the guards had to trust him. When Gally was confident the girl was under no threat of being shot, he was able to turn back to her.

"Did you never think about the fact I might have been trying to find you?"

That was all the boy could throw back. He had no energy, no bitterness, no fight in him to be angry at her. He loved her far too much for that. And it broke his heart that he was seeing her again, after so long, and this was how she felt.

She faltered then, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion and in upset that he hadn't succeeded earlier. Any sign that he was alive six months ago or practically any time before the present would've saved her lots of grief.

"Give it time to sink in. I'm confused as hell too." Frypan mumbled to her, his hand still resting on her comfortingly, despite his own confused feelings about it all.

"How the hell are you alive?" Newt asked him, clearly baffled.

"I wasn't dead when you left." Gally deadpanned, his eyes sternly resting on the guilty looking blonde.

"We watched you die." Frypan murmured from close by Ada's side, mainly because he was replaying the scene over in his head and trying to figure out how Gally managed to pull through.

"No, you left me to die." He corrected, and Ada felt the same anger returning as when she slapped him. 

"I tried to stay. They forced us out."

With her words, she forced Gally to look at her, but he didn't look sympathetic. How could he? He didn't leave them to die. But they left him to die.

And although Ada didn't have a choice in leaving him there, she wouldn't stop beating herself up over it.

"Who forced you out?" He eventually asked, his icy eyes still burning into hers accusingly.

"WCKD." She fired back, feeling spiteful due to his bitter tone. "They told us they were there to rescue us, but Thomas figured out who they were after we got to the facility."

Of course, Gally had the right to feel angry. He was left there to bleed out from the wound in his chest. But Ada was so blinded by the shock that he was alive, that she didn't stop to think how he felt in that moment.

In that second, Gally could only wonder one thing: where was the boy that speared him?

"What are you guys doing here?"

He refrained from asking about Minho's whereabouts, not wanting to touch on a sore topic, just in case the boy had somehow died during the trials of the Scorch and evading WCKD. Gally had no idea how Minho could die; although he was just as normal as the rest of them, his excessive confidence - somehow - made it seem like he would never die.

To Gally, the idea of the ex-Runner ever dying seemed completely impossible.

"Minho got taken by WCKD. He's inside the city." Newt answered, still watching Gally carefully.

Gally was shocked, but feigned lack of surprise by nodding stiffly. It was obvious Newt was on edge and Gally bombarding him with questions would only further that. So instead, he decided to do exactly what he thought would get him back in the good books of his old friends.

"I can help." 

Newt and Frypan both visibly perked at that, both of their focus moving to Thomas to gauge his reaction. But Ada's eyes remained on the boy, whose eyes were wide with hope, generosity and the longing for forgiveness.

Judging from the looks of their faces, except from Thomas, Gally was sure he had gotten his answer. He turned on his heel, gesturing to them.

"Follow me." 

"You think we're gonna follow you anywhere?" Thomas retorted spitefully, mainly out of confusion that he would even want to help.

"You don't have to." Gally said, looking to the girl again with a simple shrug. Behind his blank stare, he was more than terrified of letting her go and never seeing her again. "But I can get you through those walls."

Ada said nothing to him, moving towards Thomas to try and speak to him quietly. She had to flick his shoulder to get his resentful eyes off Gally and onto her eyes. When he finally looked at her, his gaze softened at her pleading expression.

"It's for Minho." She said, so quietly he almost missed it.

He agreed then. 

Gally led them through the building, seeming to know exactly where he was going. Ada wondered just how long he had been there, and it appeared like the boy would be telling them.

"After the Maze, I got taken by a group on their way to the City. They found out I was immune, sorted me out, and brought me here to Lawrence."

"You know you're immune?" Ada cut in suddenly, interrupting Gally's story.

As the boy looked to her, she felt a funny feeling in her stomach; one she hadn't felt since talking to the boy back in the Glade. He was watching her with an adorable look of confusion.

"Yeah, they have some sort of scanner thing here to see if you are. Why?"

Ada felt bashful then. She explained, "Not all of us are. We lost Winston to the Flare back in the Scorch."

He nodded thoughtfully then, his eyes briefly flickering with a look of pain. When he thought about it, it was obvious they were the only survivors from the Maze, but he couldn't help but have hoped that they were just separated somehow, rather than dead.

"Lawrence and his men have been at war with WCKD ever since they took control of the city." He continued on. "It was a lot different back then: not as bad outside compared to inside. WCKD can't hide behind those walls forever."

"Eventually, the day's gonna come, and we're gonna make sure that they pay for what they've done. To all of us."

Gally stopped outside a door, dragging a hand through his hair and hesitating. It was clear that he wasn't sure the interaction with Lawrence would go perfectly smoothly.

"Listen, uh, he really hasn't had a lot of visitors before. Just, let me handle the talking, okay? And uh- try to avoid staring."

His advice was a little confusing, but made sense after they were led into the room. A man stood beside the wall, where a rose bush grew, pruning the roses. Ada could safely assume this was Lawrence, and he was clearly in charge of Gally.

Gally looked a little uneasy to be introducing them to Lawrence, as though he may not take so kindly to them. The man was shadowed in the corner of the room, and IV drip visible by his side as he leaned down to pick a rose from the bush.

"Gally! Good to see you're back. Jasper told me about what happened." His voice boomed powerfully through the room, as though he were addressing a crowd.

"Essentially, it was a massacre. We can't fight against the guns they have: we're defenceless."

Lawrence didn't reply, only placed the rose he was holding down on the table. When he turned back towards them, Ada caught sight of why people may stare: due to the lack of a nose. Gally tugged on the bullet proof vest he wore on his chest, shrugging gently. In the back of his mind, he wanted nothing less than to be talking with his boss right now, not when Ada was standing only a few feet behind him.

"Who are these people, why are they in here?"

And then, ignoring the simple advice Gally had given them before they entered, Thomas explained their plans of wanting to get into WCKD. Ada had to admit: she didn't listen to a word Lawrence and Thomas shared with one another. 

She hung back, close to Brenda's side, who was sneaking her curious glances every so often. Ada in return, had her attention obviously set on the boy returned from the dead.

She was pretty much staring at him. Shamelessly, because her intrigue had gotten the better of her, and prevented her any embarrassment for looking at him. In return, Gally's gaze kept shifting to her, maintaining eye contact for just a second before he looked away to the floor with a pink tint dusting his cheeks.

Her stomach did summersaults any time their eyes locked together, yet she couldn't bring herself to look away. After six long months of believing he was gone, she wouldn't let herself take advantage of him being there again.

Who knows what could happen in the future? One of them might actually die, and they could find themselves separated for good.

Thomas must have said something right, because only moments later, they were in another room with Gally and a few other guards. Lawrence had agreed to helping them enter the city and infiltrate WCKD, and so Gally was set on taking Thomas and Newt on a first look in.

Ada couldn't help but wonder why Gally so badly wanted to help rescue the boy who almost killed him. She ultimately settled on the theory he was trying to get back into their good books after everything that happened in the Glade. She wasn't completely wrong: Gally did want his friends back. 

But she couldn't have guessed that Gally helping them was predominantly for her.

Because if anything, Gally wanted to do everything he could to make her happy. And if making her happy meant that he was saving the boy who threw a spear through his chest - and somehow still left Gally considering him a friend - then so be it.