The Safe Haven (A Newt x Reader Story)

Chapter 3: Groggy Feelings

You groan as you sleepily open your eyes slowly. Everything was a blur. Your head pounded and your body ached as if you were hungover with the "Secret Recipe" Gally used to make in the Glade. A few nights into the Glade, only having just then decided to become friendly with the Gladers, most finally decided to welcome you with open arms and have a celebratory bonfire for you. You were unsure when you were offered that night a "secret recipe" but since Newt insisted, you gulped it down in a matter of seconds. Everyone stared at you in awe as you set the empty glass on the bench beside you and you only responded to the drink with a slight hiss and a scrunched up face from the mild burning sensation in your throat.
"Holy shunk this girl is awesome!" One glader yelled out, followed by the agreement of dozens of boys cheering for you. You gave them all a shy grin and asked for another and another and... well, you get the point. You couldn't remember what happened after drink 3. Although the boys filled you in on what happened. It was detailed with dancing, vomiting, slurred speech, and you getting handsy with someone, but they refused to tell you who. The following morning you woke up tucked in bed with the worst pounding headache you were sure you ever had. Nausea took over your body and it felt like your insides were currently decaying. But wait... why were you in bed? You don't remember walking to bed, and wait... you didn't have a bed? Most of the Gladers including you were assigned hammocks since Homestead, which was where the older, more important Gladers stayed, was filled. So why were you in Homestead in a bed?
You sat up cautiously, trying not to anger the pains in your stomach to make their way up and out of your system. This was when you also noticed you did not have your own clothes on. You had your own bra, underwear, and pants, but your top was not yours. It looked familiar but you couldn't put your finger on it. Confused about the whole situation, you yanked the securely tucked blankets off of you and swung your legs off the side of the bed, only to find another surprise for the morning. There was a boy asleep on the floor. You almost stepped on him accidentally as you swung your legs over to the side of the bed, ready to stand up. You looked at him for a moment, his face was turned away from you so you only could see the back of his head. He was shirtless, his bare back turned to you, and his hair was a bed head mess of dirty blonde. He laid on the bare hardwood floor unconscious without a blanket, with his arm tucked under a singular flattened pillow. Cautiously, you stood up and tiptoed around the boy to the other side of him to get a better look. To your surprise it was Newt. His face was relaxed with his mouth slightly ajar and his eyes closed shut, allowing you to see the length of his eyelashes that hovered over his cheeks. Suddenly, your transe was broken from his features as his face began to twitch a bit and his body rolled over on his back. His eyes began to creak open and they focused immediately on you. You didn't know what to do. You felt like an intruder watching someone as they slept, but really you didn't know how you got here. You felt like you should run and hide your face, worried he'd be mad for your unintentional intrusion. Instead, you just stood there, hovering over the shirtless boy who just woke up. He rubbed his eyes and leaned up on one arm.
"Well, good morning, Party Animal." He snickered out. You gave him a confused look.
"What?" You ask nervously.
"What? Do you not remember what happened last night?" He asks with a mischievous grin. Your heart sunk to your stomach and the nausea returned. Suddenly things started to add up. The bed, the clothes, Newt. Did you guys sleep together? You backed away fearfully, crossing your arms as you suddenly felt unsafe.
"No, we didn't..." you trail off, "Tell me we didn't." You yell with your voice breaking, beginning to tremble. You saw as his expression changed from jovial to concerned.
"Oh, no no no no no!" He assured you as he began to stand up. "Y/n, no I swear to you I didn't do anything to you last night. I swear on my life, y/n." He walks over to you and grabs your shoulder out of reassurance. You swipe it away though. You weren't buying it.
"Then why am I in your room, and why do I have your clothes on, and why don't you have a shirt on?" You demanded. He sighs, looks down for a few seconds and then back up at you.
"Y/n, again, we didn't do anything. You were wasted as shunk last night and you vomited EVERYWHERE, including on yourself. I gave you my shirt last night and let you change, BY YOURSELF," he stressed out, "You also were making a scene last night and some Gladers were trying to sleep, and they kind of found some of the things you did last night a little..." he trails off.
"A little what?"
"Sexual." He says point blank. Your eyes opened in surprise.
"What did I do?" You ask with a gulp.
"It's not important." He choked out uncomfortably. "The point is, I didn't trust them with you last night after you passed out, so I brought you to my bed. Obviously I wanted to give you space so I slept on the floor. That's all Y/n, I swear to you, I would never take advantage of you like that." He stressed to you as he squeezed your shoulders, looking you in the eyes, a bit of hurt behind them, probably for your accusations at him. You gave him a reassuring nod and a shy smile.
"Okay." You sigh out, "I believe you. And thank you for doing that for me last night. You really didn't have to take care of me."
"I know I don't have to, I just wanted to." He smiles at you. You smile back. For a moment, neither of you said a thing. You were lost in each other's eyes and your faces stayed very close. It was almost a romantic moment. You thought maybe it could lead to more than just looking at each other. His eyes trailed down at your puffy, red, morning lips and you could have sworn his face was becoming closer to yours. Just as you noticed this though, your hangover nausea returned back with a strong presence. Your stomach turned over and you felt it reaching up into your throat.
"I got to go!" You exclaimed with a gag as you ran out of Newt's bedroom and to the nearest trash can down the hall, vomiting profusely and loudly for every Glader in the entire Glade to hear.
This was how you felt now. You sat up a bit and peered around at your surroundings to find yourself in the makeshift hospital that everyone had constructed together soon after you all made it to the Safe Haven. It simply was a large, open hut with about 100 cots and a few curtains around each one to give each patient privacy. But your curtains were opened a bit in the corner allowing you to see the hurrying medics rushing to each patient with a tray of tools in hand. You also noticed an IV stuck into your arm held in by a strip of tape and the rest was a tube that ran up into a plastic bag that had fluid in it that dripped in a slow rhythmic way into the tube. You didn't feel energized enough to do anything about it though. You almost nodded back off to sleep as you watched the rhythmic dripping of the fluid.
Suddenly, your curtain flung open, catching your attention. Holding the curtain that was once closed was Minho, and beside him stood Thomas. They both looked shocked to see you awake.
"Hey shunkface," Minho says with a smile, "That was a long ass nap you took, and dang you're looking rough."
"Thanks Min." You say with an eye roll. "What happened?" You ask tiredly.
"You shucking passed out while chopping logs. You're lucky you didn't impale yourself with the ax you were holding. Someone said that when you went out you had the ax swung above your head and everything. You're lucky you're okay." Minho says sternly.
"Seriously, y/n, you need to be more careful out there. I know you want to push yourself to do better and help around here, but you also have to take care of yourself." Thomas spoke genuinely. They both stood there staring you down. You felt like you were being lectured by your parents, that is if you had any.
"Okay, okay." You say annoyed, "I get it. I'll be more careful!" This seemed to be acceptable for Minho at least and he gave a nod. Dropping his stern look he quickly blurts out, "So I heard what happened earlier with you and Newt!"
"Minho!" Thomas warns, giving him a quick jolt in the shoulder.
"What do you mean?" You ask nervously.
"You know, how he got to carry you away to safety with you in his arms." Minho was very animated as he was saying this, skipping around and reenacting the whole thing. "And then he comforted you when you were upset. And it sounds like you were being a difficult patient." He says with a wink. Confusion ran along your face as you tried to decipher what he meant by that. All of a sudden it hit you though. The panic, the crying, the struggling, and then Newt on top of you. Something in your stomach tingled and you imagined it in your head all over again. The thought of him restraining you down to a bed and practically straddling you gave you butterflies.
"So you wanna share with us what happened?" Thomas spoke, giving you a giddy grin.
"Nothing happened you guys. I had a panic attack from the needle and I'm pretty sure I was hallucinating a bit. Newt had to help the nurse keep me still. That's all." You lied. It felt like more than that to you. You knew Newt didn't think so but Shuck! Just to have him in that position one more time!
Disappointment struck their faces as they found nothing juicy in your story.
"Why? What version of the story did you hear?" You knew what you were doing when you asked this question. Maybe Newt did find that moment more than just a helpful tip to the nurse. And maybe the boys heard a whole different story from Newt.
"That's why we came to you!" Minho exclaimed.
"Also because we wanted to check on you." Thomas added.
"It's because Newt told us everything leading up to that story and then he just stopped and said he didn't want to talk about it and got all flustered and told us to shuck off." Minho pouted. You found this interesting though. Maybe he felt something too. Maybe there was something more in his actions. He did seem to care for you in a more nurturing way than the other boys did now that you think about it, but he always was that way with you. You were pretty sure he just was protective of you in a brotherly love sort of way, unfortunately.
"Where is Newt now?" You ask the boys who still pouted like children.
"He's out working on the huts. He stayed with you for a good while. We practically had to drag the shucker out of here to help us out with some strips of wood." Minho spoke. This made you smile knowing Newt stayed with you when you were out like a light.
"Yup, there's that smile." Thomas grinned, "The smile only Newt can give her."
"What do you mean?" You ask innocently.
"For clunk sakes y/n, when are you going to finally give up the act and admit you like Newt?" Minho exclaims. This caught you off guard and even Thomas was shocked at his expression. His jaw dropped and he let out a barely audible, "Minho!" in a gasp. You were lost for words. You didn't want to admit to them how you felt. You didn't even have time to assess how you felt for yourself. With a heavy sigh you looked at your company in front of you and said, "Guys, I appreciate the visit but I'd appreciate it if you stopped interrogating me."
"Y/n's right Minho, we need to back off." Thomas spoke.
"But-" Minho began to protest but Thomas cut him off. "Let her rest. She just woke up and she may have a concussion. The doctor hasn't even examined her yet since she woke up. We're overwhelming her. Let's just go." You could tell Minho wanted to say more, but his morals did not allow and he silently obliged with Thomas. The boys gave you your space and soon enough a different nurse walked into your little area. She checked you head to toe. She checked your reflexes, your bodily maneuverability, your vision, your focus, and asked if any little things hurt. You were fine other than the fatigue and the mild bump on your head that could be fixed with ice.
"Just some heat exhaustion is all it was." She concluded, "But you need to be careful. You needed to stay more hydrated working that much in this heat, and you were lucky you didn't get more hurt, especially since you had an ax in hand when you fainted. That could have been the end for you." She says sternly. Beside the embarrassment and frustration of getting lectured, you knew you were being unsafe, so you nodded without making eye contact and agreed to be more safe and take care of yourself. It was frustrating to you though. You wasted an entire day being zonked out by a little heat and now you have so much to catch up on in the morning. You had no idea what time it was now or even how long you had been asleep for.
"Excuse me," you spoke up as the nurse was gathering her things after taking out your IV, "How long exactly had I been out for?" The woman thought for a moment though and eventually came up with, "About 4 and a half hours, hun." 4 and a half hours wasted. You were free to go now if you wanted. Really you wanted more rest. Your body ached and your head pounded, but there was more to do on this island to help. You didn't want to feel useless like the gossip girls; you just wanted more than anything to feel as useful as everyone else here even though you were a small girl with a couple of scars.
After sluggishly walking out of the medshack, you decided to make your way down to where you last left off. 'What a waste of a shucking day.' Your head still felt groggy and the pure exhaustion that your body felt made the short trip from the Medshack to the beach feel like a haul. As you get closer to the beach where you were last chopping logs, you see a tall figure doing your job. Quickly, you rushed over there to see who it was. There stood Newt, his skin glistening with sweat as he swung down on log after log, letting out a small grunt as he did so. His hair was soaked in sweat and it stuck like glue to his forehead.
"Newt!" You yelled out to him. Shielding his eyes from the beating down sun with his forearm, he looked up at you. "Newt, what are you doing here? You should be helping with building."
"I finished what I had to do for the day. Now I'm helping you." He says very matter of factly. "What are you doing out here? You should still be resting." He says as he drops the ax and walks closer to you. You understood his sentiment, but you didn't want it. You just wanted to forget about what happened earlier and get back to work. At this point he was practically standing over you, looking down at you. You felt like a bug looking up at him. You didn't like it. It made you feel weak; weaker than you already were at least. Heaving your chest out a bit you look at him and say, "I'm perfectly fine to be up and working, so thank you for taking over for the time being, but I can handle it from here." You began to lean down to pick up the ax Newt had set to the ground, but a shoulder got in your way and bounced you back.
"You're not picking that thing back up, y/n!" Newt spoke sternly.
'Why not?" You said in almost a whiny tone. You meant it to come out more aggressive and instead held a high pitch to it like a child.
"Because you're not well. Now go into your hut and lay the shuck down will ya?" Newt raised his voice at you. He pointed sternly behind you to where your hut was located, but you didn't budge. You hardly ever heard him take this tone with you. It made you shake a bit inside and your heart felt like it was beating out of your chest. From what? From fear? From anger? From excitement? You couldn't answer that. All you knew was that you felt that you needed to show him it didn't affect you. You weren't about to crumble.
"No." You say flatley. He held a glare in his eyes that a mother did to a child who spoke back. "I said I'm fine. Now let me do my job, Newt!" You shoved him away and snatched up the ax.
"Y/n, will you for once stop being so shucking stubborn all the time?" Frustration filled his voice and he growled as he rubbed his head. "I'm not asking you to stop, I'm telling you. Now go rest in your hut! That's an order, y/n!" His voiced strained in anger. You weren't looking at him at the moment, but you could only imagine the veins popping out of his skull.
"That's an order?" You repeated with a small crazed laugh in your voice. "That's an order? That's funny, I never remember you being in charge of me, Newt."
"In case you forgot, I'm the Second in Command, y/n, and I've gone easy on you all of these years to try to protect you, but you don't bloody care what I do for you, do you?" Newt stomps back over to you again and gets in your face.
"Well you're not Second in Command anymore, chief, because we're not in the bloody Glade anymore! So that means nothing to me." His mouth opened wide, ready to spit out more, but nothing came out. Instead he slammed it closed, held his head, and fell back first onto a nearby tree. There, he slid down against it, holding his head in his palms. He didn't say a word. It was oddly scary to you seeing him like that. It's crazy, he can yell at you all he wants, but as soon as he's silent it hurts the worst. Guilt began to flush through you. Your tough act crumbled and you dropped the ax. With a last bit of stubbornness, you walked past him and commented, "Fine, take the little bit I have left from me. I'll go play injured so you can feel like a hero." With that you marched off into your hut.