Notes: Takes place between The Scorch Trials and The Death Cure. I kept thinking back to the scene in the city where Brenda tried to explain herself during The Scorch, while mentioning that Thomas had people that cared about him, including Teresa, who had betrayed him to protect him. In my mind, I thought it would be interesting to explore the possibility of both of these strong female characters sitting down to talk and gain a better understanding of each other.

The girl who Teresa mentions that shoved her against a wall demanding answers is my OC Group B character Maria, who is supposed to be the counterpart to Minho.

She ran a hand through her dark hair and sighed deeply as she looked over at him, now sound asleep. Thomas. A faint thought of a memory passed through her mind as she watched him, his chest rising slowly before falling as he slept.

They were 7 or 8 and it was after they were put through a series of puzzle tests where they had to work together to solve them. The Creators had led Thomas to his room and she was led to hers, which was two doors down from his. Normally she went straight for her bed once the door had been opened and she would be closed in for the night. This time, she hesitated and looked over at Thomas who was pausing at his door as well.

"Something wrong Teresa?" the woman asked her as she knelt down. "You'll see Thomas tomorrow – we have some more puzzles for you two to solve."

"I want…I want to sleep next to him," Teresa said as she looked up at the Creator. "I don't wanna be alone tonight – it's…"

"Teresa, there's noth–"

"Let her stay," the man standing by Thomas spoke up. "I see no problem with that. The Chancellor said that he wanted them to build their relationship – one night, two shouldn't hurt." He stepped to the side and Teresa let go of the woman's hand, walking over to Thomas, who gestured for her to go inside his room first.

Their rooms were identical – bare walls, a plain bed, small dresser, a lamp, and one window that showed a snowy forest setting outside. His sheets were slightly wrinkled and Thomas mumbled that he tried to make the bed neatly but had trouble making those perfect, tucked corners at the ends.

"I don't care," Teresa said once they were both inside.

Thomas pulled back his quilt and he lay flat on his back, resting his right arm over his eyes. She giggled as she crawled in beside him and pulled the quilt on top of them. She rolled on her side and laughed when Thomas pretended to snore loudly.

"I know you're awake!" Teresa whispered as she nudged him playfully.

Thomas pried an eye open and smiled. "Well…for now. …I was scared being alone too. Sometimes I would cry and remember my mom – she was crying too when I left."

"But I'm here Thomas," Teresa prompted as she nudged him. "You're not alone."

Teresa shook her head and got up off the sofa, wandering around The Berg for some place to sleep. She moved around Sonya and Harriet. The blonde was fast asleep while the dark-skinned girl cast Teresa a suspicious look before closing her eyes and resting her head on Sonya's shoulder.

They hate me, she thought as she stepped around some of the Group B and Group A members carefully. She could hardly blame them – Group A had believed that she was in trouble, thanks to what Thomas had been telling them and Group B hadn't been thrilled to receive her as the new leader of their group after literally meeting her a few days ago. She spotted an area in a narrow hallway by the cockpit and she took a seat against the left wall, crossing her arms over her chest and leaning her head against the wall. She closed her eyes for a few seconds and felt someone's foot nudge her boot. Her eyes pried open to see it was Brenda, the Crank that had tagged along with Thomas and the other Gladers across The Scorch.

Brenda pointed to the space next to Teresa and asked, "Is that taken? Sorry, it's just…I can't find Jorge and I'm too lazy to look for him anymore so, anywhere will do really."

Teresa shook her head no and Brenda grunted as she lowered herself to the ground and moved so her back was firmly against the wall before bringing her knees up to her chest. She wrapped her arms around her knees and sighed, a weary look on her face. Teresa kept her eyes on the wall across from her and sighed, wishing that sleep would just come and take her soon, instead of having to sit here awake, next to the girl that Thomas spent so much time with while they were separated.

"Ya know I almost thought he was serious," Brenda spoke up after a prolonged silence. "Thought he was gonna push me outta The Berg without any care. Well, I guess I kinda deserved it, what with me being all touchy with him in the beginning."

"Tom's too noble to do that," Teresa said as she continued to stare straight ahead. "He's always had this mindset that he's got to throw himself in these risky situations and be the hero to save everybody. He was stupid enough to run after this monster in our Maze called a Griever and got stung on purpose, just so he could see if he remembered anything before the Maze. Everybody was worried since he didn't come to until a few days later and the Grievers continued to keep taking Gladers every night."

Brenda's eyes widened at Teresa's description and she shook her head. "Yeah, sounds just like him," she mused. "You know, you were on his mind all while we were traveling across The Scorch. He didn't say much, other than you were close to him and were the only one who could call him Tom."

Teresa froze when she heard what Brenda said. She lowered her head and allowed a small smile to cross her lips as she remembered the last good talk they had back in the Maze.

"I like it when you call me Tom," Thomas said.

"That's your name, isn't it?" she asked as she rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, but most people call me Thomas. Well, except Newt – he calls me Tommy. Tom makes me feel...like I'm at home or something. Even though I don't know what home is," Thomas replied.

Has it really been only a few weeks? Teresa thought as she pulled her knees close to her chest. It seemed like ages ago when she was talking to Thomas about what she could remember before she woke up from her coma after arriving in The Box with the message in her hand. They were both curious – asking too many questions and forcing things to change for the others after many years of working and living in a walled community against their will. She glanced over at Brenda and replied, "He was always on my mind too when I was with them." She nodded over at Sonya and Harriet who were asleep a few feet away from them. "But there were times I had to push him out of my mind in order to get to the Safe Haven with the others per the Rat Man's instructions."

"Rat Man?" Brenda snorted with a laugh. "That was his name?"

Teresa smiled a little as she shook her head. "He never gave his name – it's just something that one of the Group B girls called him. I don't remember really – he did look like a rat with this pinched face, small eyes, and there was something about him that was really…off putting about him."

Brenda nodded before she licked her lips and shifted her position so her back was at an angle against the wall. She tilted her head as she ran a hand through her hair. She continued, "Can't say how he felt when you guys ambushed us and took him prisoner–"

"I had no choice!" Teresa blurted out, the words leaving her mouth as quickly as a bullet fired from a gun. She tried to swallow the lump that was stuck in her throat but couldn't as tears pooled near the edges of her eyes. She tried to take a deep breath but it came out shallow and strangled.

"One minute I was in my room across the hall from the guys," she said, avoiding Brenda's eyes. "Next thing I know, I'm being woken up by these guys in white jumpsuits with masks and they're taking me away somewhere. I tried calling out to Tom for help but…they told me to stop…or else they would hurt him." She wrapped her fingers around her left arm before continuing. "Then I'm in another room and the guys in suits are telling me that I have to stop talking to Tom or his trials will be harder than they should be. They told me I had to do exactly what they told me in order for Tom to live without them making things worse for him and the others. These guys…said I had to convince Tom that I had betrayed him in some way. He had to believe that I was giving him up just so I could save myself from The Flare and that whatever connection we had, before the Maze…during the Maze…it was over. Then I woke up in a gymnasium and these girls are on me, saying they're from Group B. One of them, sort of looks like Minho, shoves me against a wall and yells at me to tell her where Aris Jones is."

Brenda craned her neck as she looked around the Berg and her eyes fell on the girl seated beside Minho, her eyes closed and her long dark hair arranged in a braid. She hummed as she looked from Minho to the girl and determined that she was probably the one Teresa was describing. There was no denying it – the two seemed very much alike, physically and mentally.

Teresa leaned her head against the wall and squeezed her eyes shut. She found that tears were flowing freely down her face and she struggled to breathe normally as she continued talking.

"I told them I didn't know what they did to Aris," she continued. "But I told them I was in the same experiment, except it was all boys and just me. Turns out Aris was their trigger, like me, and Tom's equivalent got killed after their group escaped the Maze trials. I wanted to talk to Tom, tell him what had happened. Tell him that there was another group, just like ours…"

"They threatened to kill him if you said anything?" Brenda concluded.

Teresa's reply came out a muffled sob and Brenda's shoulders sagged. She watched as Teresa's shoulders shook as tears ran down her face.

"I'm…sorry," Brenda whispered as she watched Teresa. "So, everything – all the talking and the kidnapping plot with Group B, this Rat Man and the guys in the white suits said you had to do or else Thomas would pay? …That's…I can't even imagine…they sound like horrible people. They…they work for –"

"WICKED?" Teresa choked out. She nodded and Brenda shook her head, twisting her lips into a frown.

"Unbelievable," Brenda uttered with a sigh. "I'm not gonna lie – I'm a little suspicious about this cure they promised. I…well, I have history with them too."

Teresa wiped her tears away with her sleeve and shook her head. "I don't know if they were serious about the cure but I want…I want things to go back to the way they were – Thomas was the only one who trusted me back in the Maze. The others wanted me to be locked up in their prison – they called it the Slammer, I think, and they immediately blamed me for everything going wrong in a matter of days." She sniffled before looking over at Brenda. "What do you mean you have history with WICKED? I thought you said you –"

"That I'm a Crank and I'm probably gonna go crazy and eat your face off?" Brenda finished. "Yeah I did say that. Before I found out I wasn't immune, WICKED showed up one day and tried to take me from my dad. He fought them with some cooking tool and they killed him in front of me before dumping me in The Scorch. I was…hell, I was just a kid when that happened." She sighed before running a hand through her hair. "Kinda surprised I made it this far without turning into a total nutcase. Some of the Cranks get really bad really fast in The Scorch – dunno if you saw any of these but one chased me and Thomas in the tunnels and tried to kill him for his nose of all things."

"They killed your dad in front of you?" Teresa asked, her blue eyes widening. "And this Crank was trying to get Tom's nose?"

Brenda nodded and she mimicked the gross popping sound the Crank made. "Rose took my nose I suppose," she said in the Crank's creepy voice, "and it really blows! That's all the rambling madman kept saying before he was chasing us through the tunnels. We hid in a crawl space but the Crank found us and had Thomas pinned at one point before I managed to get him down and told Thomas to kill him before he killed us."

Teresa cringed as she imagined the scene and she met Brenda's eyes with a knowing look. "Tom hesitated at first, didn't he?"

"Yup, I was yelling at him to just pick up the knife and stab the Crank in the heart or else we'd probably have some of his crazy friends on us in seconds," Brenda said. "He's not one for killing, I've noticed."

Teresa folded her hands over her knees and she admitted that he was broken after the Maze. "We lost one of the Gladers right after we escaped – his name was Chuck and he was probably no more than 12 or 13. He sort of looked up to Tom during their time in the Maze." She chewed her lower lip as she recalled the terrible event and Tom's range of emotions from agony to rage before they were whisked away by the people who got them out of the WICKED facility. "Gally, another Glader, showed up at the end of the Maze under some kind of mind control by WICKED. He threw a knife meant for Thomas and Chuck pushed him out of the way and took the hit. Tom kept trying to resuscitate him but the knife hit Chuck's heart. After that, he nearly beat Gally bloody and Minho had to pull him off."

Brenda's eyes widened and she curled her fingers into a fist before pounding the ground. "Now I hate them even more," she growled. "They killed an innocent kid right after you guys got out? That's…God I hate them!"

Teresa sighed as she pressed the back of her head against the wall. "I don't know what to think of them," she sighed. "Before the Maze, I was convinced that I was doing the right thing for the greater good. Now I'm just…I'm just not sure what to think any more." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I just want Tom to forgive me already."

Brenda looked over at Teresa and felt a nudge on her boot sole. She jerked her head up and saw it was Jorge. He motioned for her to join him and Brenda stood up, dusting herself off.

"Are you leaving?" Teresa asked with her eyes still closed.

"Yeah, I found Jorge," Brenda admitted. "Well, good night Teresa. See you when we get off this Berg and hopefully are Flare-free for good." She stepped over Teresa's legs and tiptoed around the sleeping Gladers from both groups as she followed Jorge to another part of the Berg.

Teresa sighed as she crossed her arms over her chest. It hadn't been so bad talking to the girl hanging around Tom during this trial but part of her felt that something wasn't right about this girl. She racked her brain trying to think of what the trigger could be but gave up and settled against the wall so she could sleep.

If there is a cure, she thought.