After a couple of days almost normals, Newt's depression hit back one Tuesday and he'd been spending the whole day lying on the bed.
"What was to initiate it this time?" was Thomas' concerned and whispered question to Minho.
"It's just a bad day, sometimes he got one of this, we have only to wait…" was Minho' defeated answer.
Fortunately the morning after Daisy and her bunny, Mr. Sunny, brought him flowers, "Jorge said they have my same name!" she said, and when Thomas and Minho got back that night, Newt was up, in the kitchen, with Daisy seated on his hip as they prepared pancakes for everyone.
Teresa arrived on Thursday to find the blonde boy reading a cook book looking for the perfect cake for the little Daisy. They spent the whole morning deciding and fighting and the entire afternoon baking but together they made a perfect chocolate and cream cake for the little girl.
Everything was fine till on Friday Thomas come back from one of his exploration to find Newt fainted on the floor, and his cheeks were burning with the fever.
For the all weekend the only sounds in their quarter were Newt's hard breathing and his casual whimpers every now and then.
So Newt was lying on Thomas chest, whom kept him sitter as this position facilitate the blonde labored breath, when Thomas realized what that feeling was. "I'm in love with Newt..."
Minho, who was rub the blonde temples with a wet towel, suddenly lifted his eyes from the pale face to gaze at the brunette.
"Doesn't matter if you or I are in love with him, he still loves Alby" there was a subtle tone of sadness in his words, but Minho couldn't bother to hide it.
"But Alby's dead"
"Not for him, he still seeing him..."
"No, I can help him to get over it!"
"Thomas, you know him for what? Three months? Do you really believe that you will be able to overcome what Alby did for him?"
"But..."
"No, listen shuck face, Alby was there in more bad days that you can imagine, he saved Newt from the Maze when he jumped, he help Newt to deal with the consequences of his jump, he was able to make him want to be alive the day after, WE WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO DO THAT, SHUCKFACE, NEVER, SO SLIM IT NOW!"
"SO YOU ARE GIVING UP ON HIM? SHUCK YOURSELF MINHO, I NEVER THOUGHT YOU WOULD BE SUCH A COWARD!"
They were yelling at each other more for the frustration of not being able to help their broken friend than anything else, and they would go on on that all night, but the scared whimper from the sick boy stopped them.
Newt's eyes were open, but unfocused, and the blond boy didn't look aware of his surroundings.
He looked at Minho "you shouldn't have followed me here"
"Newt?"
"I told you bloody shanks to get lost!"
"Newt, where do you think we are?" Thomas whispered in Newt ear.
"The Crank Palace?" Newt seemed unsure now, but a little bit more present.
"No Newt, you are safe now, we are in Paradise, do you remember?" Minho whisper was sweet and gentle as his hand was lying on Newt's cheek and his thumb was gently stroke Newt's cheekbone.
"Oh.." Was Newt's little sound in response, "I believed that was only a dream, or an hallucination... And there were those cranks yelling each other and I was sure to be back there.." His words were slurring now and he lost rapidly his fight against the unconsciousness.
Minho kept stroking at his cheekbone for a while. "I used to be jealous of Alby's ability to calm him down, but now I'm wishing he could be here and make him feel better" Minho eyes were stuck to the broken blonde in Thomas arms.
"You are in love with him as well, aren't you?" Thomas said with a sweet voice.
"Ah ah ah, greenie, of course I am! How I could resist to him?"
"But he'd never knows about that"
"No, as I said, doesn't matter if me and you are in love with him, his hearth belong to Alby"
"Yeah, I hear you the first time, shuck face, but I don't care"
"Ptff, greenie..."
"What do you mean with jump?" Thomas asked even if he was pretty sure he didn't want to know.
"What do you think it means? He climbed the damn wall in the maze, and jump of it to try to kill himself... Alby found him and carried him back just in time before the doors closed.. Man, we were all so terrified he was going to die... He was sort of a mum for everyone, and of course everyone was a little in love with him... I think I hadn't seen so many gladers cry all together since the first thirty had waked up in the Glades the first day"
"I'm sorry for that, by the way..." Newt was awake again, but this time he looks a little bit more present.
"Just don't scare me like that anymore, ok?"
Sunday morning more tea appeared in front of their door, and by the evening Newt was better, and Minho started to questionnaire were the tea come from.
The three of them were sitting on the couch in the living room, Newt insist on that since he needed a change of scenario, even if he still being insatiable on his legs, and his limp was so much worst than usual that Minho practically had to carry him.
So they were sitting there, when Minho express the doubt he had from the first time: "Where did the tea come from?"
"What do you mean, it was in front of the door…"
"No, I means, it was there also the first time? I'd never asked you…" Minho looked apologetic, like he slight Newt in this way.
"The first time Branda's friend gave it to me"
"Which friend?" Thomas asked, and Newt started to feel uncomfortable under their interrogatory gazes.
"The blond-ish, middle-age woman? Ada or Anya or something with and 'A', oh, right Ava, Mrs Ava Paige, that it's! "
"Ava Paige? Like in Ava Paige the Chancellor Paige?" Minho was yelling now, yelling in Newt face.
"Slim it, shuck face!" Newt yelled back "Stop to yell, breath and slim it" he repeat, calmer.
"She was the WICKED boss! come'on her face was the one on all the walls in Denver!"
"How bloody useful, I never step in Denver, you know?"
"But… but…. Thomas say something!"
"Well, she help us here, did't she? So maybe she just wanna help us…" Thomas' tone was unsure at least
"Oh, thank you shuck face, now cut the sugar coats and tell us what do you really think!" Minho was all the leader his tattoo declare him to be.
"He thinks that that bloody shanks still watching on us and experiment with us, with me, right Tommy?"
"Yeah"
"Great, simply great… let's find Brenda, let's hear what she's planning and where we should find the Chancellor"
