Newt wasn't happy.

Well, he wasn't exactly unhappy either, not when he had spent the previous evening twirling Ada around in the rain before she eventually curled up on top of him to sleep.

Not when he had finally given his heart permission to do some small, hopefully non-catastrophic version of the cartwheels it had been demanding to do for weeks.

So no, he couldn't exactly call himself unhappy in a greater sense.

The problem was he couldn't exactly call himself happy in the present moment either, not when Ada had insisted they continue experimenting with physically separating from each other.

"I'd just like to go on record and say this is shucking stupid and unnecessary," He grumbled as they reached their usual spot in the corner of the Glade.

"Noted."

Ada's tone was distracted as she moved to her normal position facing him before carefully walking backwards.

"I'm serious, Greenie," He insisted. "At a certain point aren't you supposed to admit an experiment isn't working and try something else?"

Ada reached her target, a patch of grass about ten feet away from him and stopped.

"I didn't realize you were an expert on the scientific method," She teased, her voice lilting upwards in amusement.

Newt rolled his eyes.

"You don't have to be a bugging genius to know that much."

"Newt…"

He dropped his eyes to the ground in an attempt to gather his thoughts without the distraction of staring directly at her.

"I'm not telling you to give up. I'm just saying since I hate watching you do this to yourself and it's not working, maybe we could use that big brain of yours to come up with a different idea. Crazy I know."

"Newt!"

Her voice rang out this time with an urgency that was unexpected enough to get his full attention, his eyes snapping up to search for the cause of her exclamation. He expected to find her doubled over in pain or clutching at her head like she wanted to rip it clean off. Instead he found her just staring back at him, her eyes wide but her body relatively relaxed.

He moved toward her anyway, his instinct to confirm that she was ok for himself too strong to resist.

"What? Are you ok?"

Ada held up a hand in a sign he took as an order to stop approaching her and he reluctantly obeyed, coming to a halt a few feet away. He frowned as the possibility occurred to him that she was attempting to keep him far enough away that she could mentally document some new horrendous consequence of being separated from him.

"What do you feel?" He asked nervously.

Ada took another long second to answer him and he could feel his heart pounding anxiously in the silence.

"Nothing. I feel nothing."

Newt frowned deeper and he quickly closed the remaining distance between them. Once he reached her he moved instinctively to wrap an arm around her waist in anticipation in case she collapsed. She wasn't trembling or showing any other sign that she was in danger of ending up on the ground but he wasn't taking any chances.

She felt nothing?

Visions of Ada confined to her hammock or the med-jack cabin after some strange numbness took over her limbs danced horribly through his head and he gently tightened his grip on her. She glanced down at the spot where his hand rested on her hip then back up to his face, her own hands coming up to rest against his chest though she made no effort to push him away. He expected to see fear in her face but instead her expression was almost…hopeful?

"Newt, I felt nothing when we were standing apart. As in I felt no pain. At all."

"No pain?"

Newt repeated her words a little dumbly, having trouble processing their meaning for a long moment before they finally sunk in. When they did fully register with him he felt his eyes growing wide to match hers as he searched her face for confirmation.

"Let me just…"

Now she did push at him gently until he reluctantly released his grip on her and watched her once again back slowly away from him, a look of concentration on her face. This time she didn't stop, walking backwards until she was six feet away, ten feet away, fifteen…further apart than they had ever been since the day they met other than that disastrous gathering that still gave him guilty nightmares. Finally Ada stopped and Newt felt his breath catch in his throat as he waited in anticipation for her to call back to him, beg him to come get her, inform him that the awful, excruciating buzzing that plagued her was back. Instead he saw her lips stretch into a distant grin.

"Greenie?" He called out questioningly.

"It doesn't hurt!"

Then she was off, sprinting away from him and across the Glade just like she had done the day before in the rain, a very similar joyous laugh left in her wake.

This time in theory Newt didn't have to chase her down with the same urgency, didn't have to use all of his dormant runner skills to gain on her and keep them within an acceptable distance from each other.

It didn't stop him from taking off after her though.

"Greenie! Hold up!"

Ada was in no mood to wait though, moving faster than he had ever seen her as she weaved her way across the grass. He could see others looking up from their individual tasks as she wove her way back towards the center of the Glade, confused voices rising up as they watched her blaze by followed closely (but not that closely) by Newt. Finally she skidded to a stop near the dining hall and turned to face him so suddenly that Newt was barely able to slow his own momentum and manage not to crash into her.

"This can't be explained by the practicing we've been doing," She said immediately without waiting for either of them to catch their breath. "We did it for weeks and saw no major improvement. If anything I'd been doing better before and in any case this isn't a slow increase in my ability to tolerate my symptoms they're just…gone and I can only assume some variable we're unaware of was introduced this morning because there's no other explanation for.."

"Ada," Newt huffed, too out of breath and confused to default to her nickname. "Can you cool it for five seconds so I can catch up with what you're saying? You're telling me the pain is gone? Completely?"

She shot him an at least semi-apologetic smile and nodded enthusiastically, her blonde waves bouncing with the motion.

"No matter how far apart we are," She took five large steps back from him to demonstrate her point. "I don't feel anything at all. No buzzing. No pain. Nothing."

Newt frowned.

It wasn't like he wasn't happy to hear she wasn't in pain at the moment but this was all too much for his brain to make sense of.

"That doesn't make any sense," He pointed out, reaching up to ruffle his own hair as if that might wake his brain up more. "Why would it just suddenly go away?"

"Well, it didn't make much sense that me being in pain when we were apart was a thing in the first place," She countered.

He couldn't argue with that.

"But you're right," She said as she narrowed her eyes in concentration. "I don't believe any of this is random. We just have to figure out what was different about today…"

Before either of them could examine that line of thought more thoroughly, Alby jogged up beside them with Gally following close behind.

Alby glance between him and Ada, before his gaze settled on Newt questioningly. Newt shrugged at his friend trying to convey that he was at just as much of a loss.

"Apparently the pain is gone," He said hesitantly like he doubted his own words.

Alby's eyebrows shot up at that.

"The pain that has her screaming like she's being shucking murdered anytime you take too many steps away from her?" Alby asked. "That pain?"

Newt nodded ruefully.

"That's the one."

"I'm right here," Ada interjected with mild exasperation clear in her tone. "You don't have to talk around me."

"We could just talk over you," Gally piped up, a teasing smirk making its way onto his face. "Since you're so tiny."

"Really?"

Ada rolled her eyes as Newt snickered.

"Can we focus?"

Alby did not appear to be in the mood for their jokes and in this case Newt couldn't really blame him. The situation between him and Ada had been weird enough to begin with and now that it had seemingly disappeared overnight it only made even less sense. He just hoped Alby didn't take this as an excuse to distrust her even less.

"Newt and I were just trying to figure out what had changed that might explain this," Ada answered, her brow still furrowed in concentration.

"Any bright ideas?" Alby asked, glancing at Newt again.

Newt cringed.

He definitely wasn't generating any brilliant insights at the moment, his brain was too busy reeling from all the changes in his circumstances in less than twenty four hours.

Alby turned back to Ada.

"So you're telling me you can be apart from Newt now and nothing bad will happen to you?"

Ada nodded enthusiastically and Newt felt a surge of panic rise up inside of him, prompting him to step forward between Ada and Alby, holding his hands out as though he could physically slow the conversation down.

"Ok, everybody just hold up, we don't know that. All we know is she's been pain free for a few bugging minutes which is great…"

He shot Ada a quick smile to make sure she knew he meant it before continuing on.

"But that's no reason to assume that's going to last forever."

"It's no reason to assume that it's not either," She pointed out and Newt fought the urge to groan in frustration.

Did she have to be so stubborn all the time especially when it came to putting herself in situations where the risk of her being in pain was high?

"Ok, nobody should assume anything, got it," Gally commented which everyone chose to ignore.

"Well, we've got to test it sometime and I need to talk to you anyway," Alby told Newt.

Newt hesitated, glancing over at Ada who nodded encouragingly. Of course she was all for them trying a more complete separation. This was still like a big science experiment to her and she was apparently willing to risk excruciating pain if it meant she got answers. He admired her for that, in a way. He had certainly endured his fair share of unpleasant things for the greater good of the Glade over the years. But this felt different in a way he refused to let his brain pinpoint.

If it was him that might face the consequences that was one thing but having to live with the fact that if they were being hasty she would be the one to suffer?

"Go on," Gally broke into Newt's thoughts, slapping a hand on his shoulder. "I have something to show her anyway. If the pain comes back I'll throw her over my shoulder and have her back next to you in two minutes."

"I'm not a sack of Frypan's potatoes," Ada said, hands on her hips.

She was smiling though.

Newt sighed.

"Alright. Just don't push it ok, Greenie? First sign of that bloody buzzing and you come find me, ok? We'll just be over there."

He nodded in the direction of the tree at the center of the Glade.

Ada reached out and squeezed his hand briefly and even though the contact was over in less than half a second Newt could feel himself blushing under Alby and Gally's scrutiny.

"I'll be fine," She said firmly. "I need to observe a longer distance between us anyway."

Newt watched for a moment reluctantly as Gally led her in the opposite direction. Even though them being stuck together had been against his will and incredibly inconvenient he had grown so used to it that watching her go felt wrong.

"The quicker we talk the quicker you can run right back to her," Alby said, his tone just short of teasing.

Newt groaned and turned to set off for the tree where he had told Ada they would be talking.

"That's the spirit."

Alby chuckled and jogged to catch up to him.

When they reached the tree, Newt sank to the ground under its shade, immediately reaching for a nearby patch of grass and tugging a few blades out of the ground just to give him somewhere to put his anxious energy. He turned them over in his hands, rubbing his fingers up and down the recently plucked grass as though that would help him forget that Ada was all the way across the Glade.

It didn't feel right, not after all the time they had spent right next to each other over the past couple of months.

It felt like when he forgot to grab his machete in the morning or worse that reoccurring nightmare he used to have where he emerged into the Glade having forgotten his pants. Worse still it felt like emerging into the Glade from the box, a scared, disoriented kid throwing up in the grass as he realized he had forgotten something important.

Realized he had forgotten everything important down to his name.

"I'm sure she's fine," Alby broke into his friend's thoughts and Newt realized he had been staring out in the direction he had last seen her. "Gally threatened to throw her over his shoulder and run her back to you if she wasn't and you know as well as I do Gally doesn't joke about the opportunity to toss someone around."

Newt managed a chuckle at that, dueling memories competing for his attention. Gally spinning her around in the rain the day before. Her challenging Gally to a shoving match on the night of your welcome party.

"So what do you need to talk to me about?" He asked, turning his attention back to his friend.

Alby didn't reply for a moment, just examining Newt's face like he was looking for something in his expression. Newt didn't know what that was exactly but Alby must have found it because he finally spoke up.

"Honestly?" Alby raised an eyebrow and smirked over in Newt's direction. "I haven't been able to talk to you alone for over a month, when I saw the opportunity I just figured I'd better take it. She might be back to claiming she has to be stuck to you like Frypan to bacon tomorrow."

"She's not claiming to need to stick to me she does…did…whatever," Newt argued as the rest of what Alby had said sunk in. "And you are officially the most annoying shank who ever lived. What…you're saying you missed me or something?"

Alby grinned.

"My days have been so boring without our talks."

Newt rolled his eyes and tossed a bit of the grass he was holding back to the ground but he couldn't deny being relieved to have a chance to talk to Alby that wasn't tense and awkward and likely to end with them on opposing sides of something important.

Alby had been his friend, arguably his best friend, for years now.

Before Ada showed up they had spent as much time joking around as they did running the Glade together.

He had missed this, even if half of his attention was still on thoughts of the Ada shaped empty space next to him.

"But while I've got you here," Alby said as Newt groaned.

"Oh here we go."

"It's not about that."

"It's not about Ada?"

"Well…"

Newt groaned again and Alby held up his hands in surrender.

"Ok, it's about her but it's not about whether or not I trust her or whether or not she's some kind of creator spy, at least not directly."

Newt eyed his friend carefully.

"You've got about five seconds to spit it out before I assume that's exactly what it's about."

"Have you always been so impatient or is that new?" Alby joked. "Ok, ok. We've got to talk about yesterday."

Newt blanched at that though he quickly did his best to nudge his expression back toward something neutral.

He didn't know if Alby meant he and Ada disappearing into the garden shed, or spinning around in the rain, or if bugging inconveniently Alby had somehow figured out they'd shared a hammock the night before.

But he wasn't eager to talk about any of those things just yet, especially when Ada and Gally could theoretically return at any time.

"What about yesterday?" Newt asked, hoping that somehow Alby was referring to the leak in the Homestead roof or some other mundane Glade business.

"I saw your face," Alby said bluntly.

Newt frowned.

"My face?" He repeated. "What the bloody hell does that mean?"

"I saw your face when you looked at her," Alby clarified. "When everybody was slacking off in the rain and you were watching Gally try to make her lose her lunch."

"So what's your point?" Newt asked, still hoping he could play this off though that was looking less and less likely.

"My point is that you had the dumbest shucking expression I've ever seen, and unless you've suddenly developed a thing for Gally then I'm pretty sure you've got a crush on the former Greenie. Maybe more than a crush."

Newt absentmindedly crumpled the remaining of blades of grass between his fingers.

"That's…that's not…"

He trailed off as he caught sight of Alby's face and realized he knew his friend well enough to almost instantly catalog everything that was written there.

Teasing. Worry. Knowing.

He had been found out, probably by random Gladers, almost certainly by Gally and Minho, and definitely by Alby, his leader and best friend who was too damn observant for his own good.

"Fine," He sighed. "There might be some truth to that."

Alby just stared back at him with that same annoying look…teasing, worried, knowing and Newt let his head fall back to thump dejectedly against the tree behind him.

"Fine, there might be a lot of truth to that." He glanced over at Alby who was looking frustratingly amused by Newt's admission even if a hint of worry was still visible too. "Does everyone know?"

"Does she?" Alby countered, one of his eyebrows raising again.

"She…I mean yeah. We talked about it this morning and also a bit yesterday."

He tried to ignore the way the tips of his ears burned as he remembered the…conversation…he and Ada had in the garden shed.

"So you and the newbie are what, a thing now?" Alby asked.

"We're not a thing," Newt shot back. "We care about each other in a way that we've mutually acknowledged is different than the way I care about the rest of you shanks…"

"Should I be offended or relieved?"

Newt ignored Alby's interjection.

"But I know where we are and I know the bloody Glade isn't the place for a…a…"

"A thing?" Alby supplied, warning him a glare from Newt.

"A distraction," He finished. "It doesn't matter what I would want us to be to each other if we weren't stuck in here fighting for our lives every shucking day because we are and keeping the Glade running and maybe someday getting everyone out of here safe has to be the priority."

Alby listened to Newt's rant before speaking up again.

"You don't want to be distracted by the newbie?"

"Exactly," Newt confirmed.

"How's that going for you?" Alby asked.

Newt sighed.

"Not great."

"That's what I thought."

"Maybe it will be easier now that she and I have talked it out," Newt said hopefully. "I'm going to stop keeping her at a distance…"

"Is that what you were doing cause from the outside it looked like you realized you had a crush and panicked."

Newt shot him another glare.

"And I think she's going to try to stop acting like her feelings are some variable in a science experiment and…"

"And maybe it will be easier now because she doesn't have to chase you around like a griever since that pain thing is gone? Allegedly."

Alby said pointedly.

"You know what, I haven't missed our talks at all," Newt grumbled.

He couldn't keep his eyes from being drawn back across the Glade in the direction Ada and Gally had walked off, still half expecting to see them coming running back, Ada clutching her head in defeat.

"Newt."

Alby's more serious tone brought his attention back to the conversation at hand.

"I'm not going to pretend I don't still have my doubts about her and why she's here," Alby said. "This place is designed to kill us and for some bugging reason I thought it would be a good idea to make it my job to try to keep that from happening. Being a little bit paranoid comes with the territory. But I'm not just some shank who wants to make things difficult for you, I'm your friend. And even if I have a lot more questions for the girl who is the source of it…it's good to see you happy."

Newt gaped at him, his brain reeling from that unexpected statement.

"Uh, thanks," He managed to say finally. "That's…nice."

Alby laughed and reached out to shove at Newt's shoulder.

"Such a way with words. I can tell why she fell for you."

"Please shut up," Newt reached up to rub at his forehead. "Please."

"I'm still going to tell you to be careful," Alby said. "On multiple levels."

"I am being careful."

Newt wasn't any less frustrated by his friend's insistence on continuing to question Ada's presence in the Glade but it had never been about not understanding the reasons behind it.

And as far as his and Ada's…thing?

Well, it wasn't like he needed Alby to tell him it was a risk, even with the careful box he had tried to put it in during their conversation that morning.

A shriek broke the quiet of the Glade, a distinctly female voice echoing from somewhere in the distance causing both Alby and Newt's heads to snap up.

"Newt…" Alby started but Newt was already on his feet, legs falling into the familiar sprinting rhythm that he had known so well during his time as a runner.

His heartbeat thumped in his ears, dread settling deep in his chest where his heart should have been.

Please, please, please.

His thoughts narrowed to that one word, repeating in the same rhythm as his pounding footfalls.

Be careful.

Isn't that what Alby had said?

Newt had claimed that he was but suddenly that claim seemed laughable.

He had carved out his peace of mind and left it in someone else's hands.

Someone who for the first time since she arrived in the Glade…

Was out of his reach.