Secrets | TMR | One

4:3

A/N So I know it's shorter but I wanted to add more about Nick, and how he feels and shit... ya know?
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Nick did not go to the Medhut.

At least, not into the room where Adeline was.

He wanted too.

Wanted to run to her. Be by her side. Comfort her. Make sure she was okay, and tell her how sorry he is for acting so strangely towards her earlier this morning.

But instead, he went into the smaller room, the one just to the left of the main entrance. The one filled with just one singular bed, and boxes of supplies stacked up to the ceiling.

The room Adeline went in that night she headbutted him.

The night of the worst nightmare that Nick has ever had to bare witness to.

It all makes sense to him now.

Everything is beginning to fit into place, like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Her nightmares, the strange things she would spit out in the middle of the night. The words that would tumble from her lips while she slept, words that used to hold no meaning whatsoever, now finally coming together. The way she knew as soon as she arrived which boys she liked, and which ones she did not.

How she seemed to know Nick better than he knows himself, from the very start.

Regardless of the fact that she had only known him a few days, she seemed to know everything about him. Everything about Alby, even down to the small detail of him making the bracelets that all three of them still have tightly wrapped around their wrists.

That same bracelet he is fiddling with now, sitting in that small room in the Medhut, on his own whilst Adeline is being tended to by Clint, Jeff, and, no doubt, Gally.

Nick feels awful for leaving her with him. After so long of fighting with her over the builder, and the way he tried so hard to get her away from him, only to now push her back towards him.

He fought so hard for her, and now he is willing to just let her go.

But is he willing to just let her go?

The leader does not know. Has not the faintest idea of what he is meant to think, or how he is meant to act.

Should he tell the other Gladers? Or should he keep it to himself? Just become another string in her ever-growing web of lies?

Nick has a lot to think about.

She broke his trust, and he needs time.

So, until then, he needs to stay away, for he knows that the moment he looks into her bright blue eyes, he will surely crumble, become nothing more than putty in her hands.

The leaders eyes dart up to look at the door as Jeff walks in, a cup of water in hand, and a smaller cup with two pills in the other.

''How you feeling?'' the Med-Jack asks, using his backside to stop the door from slamming shut before taking a few short steps towards him.

Nick does not respond for a moment. Instead, he gratefully accepts the painkillers with his left hand, drawing it up to his face and tipping it over his mouth. The two tiny pills tumble from the cup, slipping and sliding against his saliva as they trickle down his throat.

"I'm tired" the leader finally states, his head tilting back down again, "just want to go to bed."

"Well I don't think that's such a good idea" Jeff responds, placing the cup of water down next to Nick and making his way over to the pile of boxes in the corner of the room.

Nick furrows his brows, pushing his face back slightly and staring at the back of the Med-Jacks head. "Why not?"

"It's not good for a concussion" is all the boy says back, keeping his eyes trained on the box at the top of the stack as he gently pulls it away from the wall, being careful not to knock it against any of the others.

"Who says?"

Jeff manages to haul the box away without causing any damage to the rest. Smiling proudly to himself, he spins his body around and places it on the end of the bed Nick is sat on and begins sifting through it, casting a quick glance up for the leader for a moment as he replies. "Addy" is all he says, his eyes dotting back down to the open box in front of him.

"Of course" Nick mumbles, pulling his lips into a thin line, nodding his head and looking down to his fingers as he twiddles them together. "How's her leg?"

"Depends" the Med-jack confesses, tilting his head to the right slightly, but keeping it down as he pushes his hands further into the box. "It's been stitched up as best as we can, it's been cleaned and wrapped but... she can't feel it. Literally didn't twitch, or flinch, or anything. Just sat there and spoke absolute nonsense to Alby while we did it."

"Sounds about right" the leader mutters, letting an airy chuckle escape his lips, not tearing his eyes away from his intertwined fingers. "Maybe it'll come back eventually."

"Yea" the Med-jack agrees, pulling a fresh bundle of bandages from the box and sitting them to the side before rummaging again. "She's been asking for you, ya know."

Nick merely shrugs his shoulders. "Gally's with her."

A small snort escapes from the Med-jack lips, causing the leader to whip his head up to face him, only to find the boy already looking at him, with an expression of nothing but sheer amusement.

"Gally got told to go away, and trust me when I say that's the soft version of what was actually said" Jeff says, trying to hold in the chuckles, "that girl has a colourful vocabulary."

"So who's with her now?" Nick questions, beginning to feel slightly guilty for not being there, but also slightly amused as the image of Adeline telling Gally to fuck off swirls in his mind.

"Nobody" Jeff informs, stacking the box back up on its pile, "everyone's away for lunch, which is exactly where I'm going after I pack these away in the other room."

"Nobody?" the leader repeats, his eyes following Jeff as he bundles up all the bandages and wrap he has collected and walks to the doorway.

"Nah. To be honest, there's no point in anyone else being there."

"Why's that?"

The Med-jack turns his body just as he reaches the door, his back resting delicately against it for a moment. "She only wants you there" he says with a shrug of his shoulders.

Nick does not respond, his eyes flickering away from the boy in front of him and locking onto the tip of his left knee.

"Listen" Jeff starts, kicking his knee up to shift the box higher up so he can get a better grip on it, "you want my advice?"

The leader lifts his head back up, his body leaning back as his hands curve around the corner of the bed just behind his back. "Go for it."

"Go see her" the Med-jack says, his face laced with a sympathetic expression, "she's had a rubbish night, and she needs you right now... more than she needs anyone else.

Not waiting for Nick to respond, Jeff pushes his backside against the door, gently swinging it open and turning his body to walk out.

Once again, the leader is left with nothing but his own thoughts.