Guess who's baaaack?~ Finally. I found a way to watch season three sooo I will be writing again! Granted I am an adult so I have work and I'm currently writing my own original story and also will be going to school soon, so don't expect too much out of me. (And I may or may not waste away some of my free time with all of the tv shows coming back on air soon.. xD) I hope you like this though. I'm trying! I also remember a reviewer saying I needed to space out my sentences more so I hope this is better. It honestly kinda bothered me doing it like this but I'd like it to be easier to read so if it's still not in the correct format please tell me! Enjoy~

There was a rule I had about not sleeping with my hair up and I was reliving the horrifying reasons for that rule right now.

My hair was longer than it used to be. I had cut it some before I dyed it but the length was still longer than it used to be so I pulled it back into a ponytail a lot. When I slept with it pulled back it would be wavy and annoying when I took it out of the hair tie the next day.

"Frickin'," I grumbled as I forcefully brushed my hair back into the ponytail, "I am so stupid. I am so, so stupid."

"You aren't supposed to rip your hair out when you pull it back you know," Pip said as he leaned his body against the door frame.

"I need a shower but I woke up late and haven't eaten yet so now I'm waiting for Mere to get back with food," I sighed and leaned back against my hospital bed, "I'd rather just move the rest of my stuff into the room later tonight. I actually wanted to spend the day helping you guys rebuild the buildings."

"You'll be too tired tonight and I'll end up carrying the boxes back to your room while Meredith complains about waking you two up."

On cue the small girl showed up behind him with food, "I will not!"

"Oh thank god food," I talked fast and grabbed the sandwich from her hand, stuffing half of it in my mouth and almost choking when the bread stuck to the roof of it.

"I swear you'd be dead if it wasn't for us," Pip laughed after he handed me the water, "Seriously. You'd be six feet under."

"Hey now!"

It had been a month since the fight with Jeremy. I hadn't really talked to both him and Ben since then. Thankfully no one had heard the noise and I wasn't reported so I was being let out of the hospital today and back into my room. And, lucky me, Meredith still got to bunk with me. It was the greatest news I've heard recently.

"Are you gonna be going tomorrow to the mines for that group of harnessed kids?" Pip suddenly asked, his tone more serious. I knew why he was questioning. Meredith did too. I could tell by the way she was eyeing me.

"No," I said without looking up, "I'll be decorating my half of the room. I will be no where near it."

"Are you gonna get your spikes removed?" Meredith chipped in. This caused both Pip and I to look to her. It was a surprising question all around.

"Are you ?" He retorted.

"I... I don't think so. I like them. I've grown so used to them that I don't think I'd know what to do without them. Plus it's easier to have secret conversations at night when we're all supposed to be asleep!" The happy and carefree tone in the young girl's voice was just amazing. It was something everyone needed to hear. She made this 'settling down' thing a little more easier. It felt more like a community when you could hear someone be so collected, like it wasn't the end of the world or a war with aliens outside.

"Well, you know I won't be," I responded quietly, "I couldn't live without them."

"I won't be either. I've been harnessed almost since day one. It changes you, having spikes for three years."

"Oh! Isn't your birthday soon Estella?" Meredith went to a happier subject. Well, she believed it was a happier subject. I just pushed my hand to her mouth and shushed her as fast as I could.

"I don't want anyone knowing that. No one. At all."

"Why? You'll be nineteen, right?"

"Shut up Pip!" I hit his arm this time, "No talking. Besides, it's almost Meredith's sixteenth as well. We should be focusing on your sweet sixteen instead."

She groaned at that and leaned back onto the bed, "No. I don't want anything. No party."

"What, you don't like the idea of a candy land birthday anymore?" I began, laughing as she gave me a death glare, "With the cotton candy chairs and candy cane-"

It was her turn to put her hand on my mouth with a 'shut up' to go along with it.

"Cotton candy chairs..?" Pip's voice dripped with humor, "Seriously Mere?"

"I was thirteen!"

"Patrick, when's your birthday?" I suddenly realized we didn't know each other's birthdays. I only knew her's since it was two days before mine.

"It will be in a month, actually."

"I'm older than you!?" I went wide eyed, "Wow. So you really are my little brother. Whoa. That's news to me."

Meredith snorted, "Seeing as you both act like you're ten, it's not much difference. No one would even know you're going to be nineteen."

"Oh god Pip we're old," I groaned and put my head in my hands, "I'm old. Oh god. I'm an adult. I didn't even realize I'm old enough to have been buying cigarettes and get into R rated movies and clubs- wait did you have to be eighteen or twenty-one to get into clubs?"

"How would I know?" His chuckle filled the room, "I sat at home and played Guild Wars most of the time."

"Oh me to, I loved the necromancer class. It was always my favorite."

"Guys," Meredith interrupted, "Be geeks later. You need to shower. Like, now. Or there will be no daylight left."

I laughed and nodded, agreeing. After grabbing some clean clothes and a towel I made my way to the showers available to the hospital residents. I was going to miss them. It was the only bad thing about getting to live among people again.

With the hot water hitting my back I was able to relax the tension in my shoulders I had grown too used to. Since I wasn't talking to Ben and that girl was around him all the time I never seemed to not be tense. It wasn't healthy, obviously, but at least I didn't huddle in a corner and cry.

After getting dressed and combing my hair I joined up with the other two and we made our way into the city. Helping others build gave me more happiness than I thought it would. Being a valuable member of the community again made things a little more normal. As Dr. Kadar has been telling me lately, I needed a sense of routine again or I wouldn't be able to fix what's gone wrong. And he was strangely right. Helping everyone out every day and now getting my own room, well sharing one with a girl I viewed as a younger sibling, made this feel more like home. And I needed that. I needed home.

And I was finding it within the walls of the resistance city.