Little lies - NEWT

{3.01}

SIX MONTHS PASSED QUICKER than anything ever had before. It felt more like six days, if she was being completely honest. Eden just had far too much to do and little time to do it within so the days flew by exponentially. There were a few days that stuck in her mind but most days were lost to the void of hours that she simply could not recall. During this lost time though, Eden had done a world of good for the right arm.

She had slipped into the reole her mother had left with such ease that it was almost creepy how similar the two were. As soon as they were settled in their new camping ground (by the sea, where a boat to take them all to the safe haven when the time came resided) she began to get to work on the vaccines. The first thing she did was mass produce them, then she simply dished them out to whoever needed them as if it were nothing. Secondly, she spent every spare moment that she had modifying the vaccines so they were more effective. After dozens of tests and dozens of failures, she had managed to decrease the likelihood of it failing to a mere one out of thirty. Much better to the one in four chance beforehand. These were then given to the people who wanted that extra protection, which was most. She struggled somewhat to keep up with the demand initially but after a while she managed to keep a few backups in her fridge -just in case of newcomers.

On this particular day, Eden and Newt both lay in the bed of their shared room as they stared at the ceiling above them. Eden and Newt both had an odd predicament when it came to sleep. Sometimes, they would both pass out as soon as their head hit the pillows. Sometimes they both woke at the exact same moment in the dead of night and were unable to sleep again. And some days, neither of them could sleep at all. They were always both in the same predicament though. If one didn't sleep, neither did the other even if they were nowhere near each other. This had occurred since they lost Minho to Wicked. That night was a wake up in the middle of the night and not able to get back to sleep at night - which sucked, given they were both mentally exhausted from all the overwhelming things that had occurred that day. Eden had lost a patient due to an infection within their liver and Newt had been a major part of the overly frustrating plans to save Minho. They had been planning for the entire time yet had only decided on a few details of the plan - it was frustrating to say the least.

"What's your favourite number?" Eden asked, so softly that a simple pick up of the wind rattling the shutters on the window would completely drown her out. Luckily the early morning, where darkness was still upon them, was completely windless.

"My favourite number?" he repeated, laughing softly as if the question was ludacris.

Eden lifted her head from his chest and looked up, laughing as she replied, "I'm serious!"

Newt inhaled deeply, thinking about it for a moment. It wasn't a question that he had ever been asked before. After about thirty seconds, he figured it out, "Twenty seven. Yours?"

"Eighty four," Eden responded quickly. She did not know why but that number had always struck out in her calculations and it quickly became her favourite.

"Why eighty four?"

"Why twenty seven?" she asked softly, grin pulling at her lips. The intense level of eye contact between them sent them both into fits of quiet laughter that, as it slowly died out, left them both with a bubbly feeling in their stomachs. They both lay in silence, enjoying the perfectly toasty temperature of their bed and the stillness of the outside world. Eden nearly found herself forgetting about all of her duties for the day, the lengthy list of duties that never seemed to get any shorter. She sighed as a sense of panic brewed in her stomach, a panic fueled by her overwhelmed nature. And the only way she could shake it was to get started on the list. "I should get up." she whispered, beginning to untangle her legs from his and the layers of blankets on the bed.

"It's not even light out yet Pepper," Newt protested softly, despite the fact that he helped her unravel herself from the cosy cocoon.

"I have things to do," Eden countered as she slipped out from the blankets, immediately fishing her long sleeve t-shirt from the floor in order to combat the striking cold air that met her bare skin. "And people to check on."

Newt remained silent as she pulled on her jeans and a jumper, knowing that she would not listen to her protests anyway. In the part of the desert that the Right Arm had taken as their camp, it was unbelievably cold in the mornings but it also dulled the heat of midday to a temperature they could easier handle. To those who did not have to wake up as early as she did, the slightly colder temperatures didn't matter. But to her, they were bloody murder. With a shaking hand, Eden popped open a box of tablets and swallowed two of the oval shaped pills within. "Again?" Newt called out, hearing the tell tale sound of the packet closing despite her extensive efforts to muffle or hinder it.

"It's not that bad. I'm just taking them before it gets any worse," Eden shrugged as she placed the pills back in their drawer, being careful not to make too much noise.

She heard a ruffle of blankets and made a guess that he had sat up to further his point. "You're making yourself ill. You need to take a break, love."

"I'm fine," she sniffled as she pulled on his jacket. It was fleece lined and much warmer than hers so she stole it in the mornings, since he got up when it was warm enough outside. He would come and get the jacket from her midway through the day and by that point she would have hung it on the coat rack in her office long ago - Eden ran around a lot in the medical tents. She turned around, already feeling warmer as she hugged the fabric closer to her body. She smiled softly at him, asking, "Come and see me later?"

He nodded seconds before he sighed deeply and laid back down into the pile of blankets, now feeling deathly cold on her side. She smiled briefly at the sight of him trying to steal sleep that they both knew he wasn't going to get before she gently opened and shut the door, immediately feeling the intense bite of cold that had seeped into their bedroom.

Eden walked straight to the medical hut and her lab, by extension, and got to work. She had the exact same daily routine. One, check the dodgily crafted fridges had not given out during the night and ruined all her work on the cures and various other projects. This was something she was constantly worried about. Two, check on every single experiment that is currently processing. She checked through every single glass jar, test tube and tank before she moved on to step three. Step three occurred just as the sun was beginning to climb higher into the sky. She checked on every patient in the medical tent - there were about five as a lot of injuries came from the reconstruction of the boat in the harbour. Four had her checking with Celia, another medically inclined member of the Right Arm who she quickly got close too.

The routine ended there as almost every day something interrupted it. Today however it was good news.

Thomas and Brenda had both stormed into the med tent just as Eden was stitching a wound on someone's leg. After Eden had yelled at them quite thoroughly, they gave her the news. The plan to save Minho and Aris was about to begin.