The Restored Girl

Chapter 14: At Night

NEWT'S POV
At night, I lie in bed with Rhea's back against my chest, my arm around her waist.

Minho's asleep-his deep breathing tells me so-and Rhea, too, is sleeping. I can't seem to find it in me to go back to sleep though.

Nightmares often invade my dreams, but Rhea being here makes it easier. Easier, but not completely gone. It's been happening ever since I started becoming a Crank. I have dreams, still, about my time as a Crank.

Rhea has said that the cure that they had made for Cranks had erased our memories of when we were past the Gone, but I wonder if these dreams are actually my memories of when I was a Crank.

It's always the same dream, though. One of someone standing above me, and me saying something, almost as if I'm begging. Then the sound of a loud gunshot.

That's when I wake up suddenly in cold sweat.

Right now I'm still reeling from the effects of that very dream. I feel Rhea shift and tighten my hold on her in the dark room.

I rest my head on her shoulder, letting myself breath in the smell of her lavender shampoo. I should probably be getting sleep in order to be prepared for tomorrow, yet I can't.

"Hey," Rhea murmurs, and for a second I think she's sleep talking. But she brings a hand over the one I have around her waist. "Is it the nightmares again?" She asks softly, not wanting to wake Minho.

I hum a little, and she sighs, turning around to face me. She brings a hand up to my cheek, and even in the dark I can see her Caribbean blue eyes.

"Do you want to talk about it?" She asks in a whisper.

I don't want her to worry, so I shake my head against the pillow,

Rhea smiles a little. I can tell that she's tired, and I feel so bad for having to wake her up like this. It's selfish of me, I know.

"Come here," she tells me, and I move closer to her.

She curls up against me, resting her head against my arm. "I love you, Newt," she whispers to me, "don't ever forget that."

That's the second time that she's said that to me. It still feels unreal. I draw Rhea in closer to me, kissing her forehead. "I love you too, Rhea."

This time, when she softly tells me to sleep, I do. And though the nightmares come, I know that she's beside me, and that none of it is real.

~

I wake up before Minho and Rhea, who both aren't really early risers, despite how early they used to wake up. They must be catching up on all that sleep they lost as Runners.

I gently detach myself from Rhea, going to take a shower. As I leave the bed, I brush stray strands of Rhea's hair out of her face and bend down to kiss the top of her head.

I head into the shower. Once I'm done, I change into track pants and a t-shirt with a jacket over it. When I head out, I witness the rare sight of Rhea smacking Minho on the face with a pillow. Minho is laughing, and Rhea looks as if she's trying to hold back a smile.

Thomas is in the room, too, having probably come in from our connecting doors.

He is sitting on my bed, a grin on his face as he waves at me. "Morning, Newt."

"Hey, Tommy. What in the bloody hell is going on here?" I ask, running a hand through my messed up hair that's still slightly wet, messing it up a bit more.

Rhea turns and smiles at me, before turning back to Minho and hitting him again, smile quickly transforming back into a scowl. "That's for waking me up," she mutters, before walking over to me as Minho fights between laughter and gasps of pain from a pillow.

"Morning," Rhea mutters, as I bring an arm around her waist. She rests her head on my chest, closing her eyes.

"You're not going to fall asleep on me, love," I say, trying to make my voice stern. It's a bit difficult to sound serious, though, when Rhea is being all soft on me-a rare side of her that she usually shows only at night, and only with me.

"Too late," Rhea mumbles, "blame it on your stupid friend over there."

"You hurt me, my dearest sister," Minho gasps dramatically, bringing a hand to his chest. "Right there in the heart."

Rhea groans against me. "I need to shower and then I need to go and deal with the Seniors."

"Sounds like you have a busy schedule before take off," Thomas says.

Rhea nods, pulling away from me, though I keep my arm around her waist. "Yeah. I was hoping that you could help me, Thomas. Make sure the bombers know what they're doing, and make sure that the evacs know how to lock the WICKED doors."

"No problem," Thomas says, standing up. "But first, breakfast."

I chuckle. "Yeah, I'll follow you down. You're good here, Rhea?"

"Yeah," Rhea says, running a hand through her tangled bed hair. "You boys go ahead, I'll take a while."

I nod as Minho swings off his bed. "Let me change first," he says, dashing into the bathroom.

As we wait for him to come out, Thomas whispers, "so what happened to him and Amy?"

I look to Rhea, wondering the same thing.

She frowns. "What? How would I know?"

"You know everything," Thomas states.

Rhea sighs, shaking her head. "They haven't said anything to one another yet, but maybe he's waiting till after we take down WICKED."

Before we can continue on on our conversation, Minho comes out of the bathroom in a black t-shirt and track pants.

"Alright, you shanks," he says, grinning, "let's go eat. See you later, Rhea!"

Rhea kisses my cheek before pulling away and bringing a hand to my hair, messing it up some more. She reaches over and does the same to Minho.

"Hey!" Minho protests as I grin.

Thomas snickers with Rhea.

"See you," she says.