As if he was destined to live an awful life, Gally always felt like the world was against him. He struggled to make and keep friends, always wound up hurting himself on accident, and always let the wrong words past his lips. It wasn't that he meant to, but he felt like he had no control over what spilled out of his mouth sometimes. And, because of that, his defence mechanism had turned into a deterrent which made everyone fear him. Based on the fact that he lived in an inescapable stone box, he wouldn't be surprised if the people who had put him in here with no memory were also able of controlling what he said sometimes. It was like the people who put him in this place wanted everyone to hate him.

Gally was kind. He was brave, and he was hardworking. He didn't always come across like that to the other Gladers, though.

There was only one person who managed to see past his rough exterior. It was Y/N, the Glade's only girl.

Like the universe had it planned to play even more cruel tricks on Gally, the gardens were perfectly positioned across the Glade from the homestead where Gally worked. There was Y/N, tying vines with Newt and Zart, her soft laughter wafting across the Glade.

The builder nearly jumped out of his skin when a tap came at his shoulder. He turned to find Alby standing there with a smug smile.

"Newt said there was an incident in the gardens and there are some repairs needed. Go check it out, will you?"

Taking a deep breath, the builder mustered all of the confidence he could. "Yeah, I've got it."

For Gally, it felt like he'd fallen into a trance while walking over to the gardens. When he arrived, he didn't even remember the trip over, but he was met with Y/N sooner than he had hoped.

"Hey," Gally nodded and tilted his nose to the sky in order to keep his head up a little. He had no clue why he did it, maybe it had always just made him feel tougher. "Alby said something needed fixing?"

"Yeah!" Y/N laughed lightly and grabbed Gally's arm, making him flinch. She brought him towards the wreckage and he was finally able to breathe again when she released his arm.

"Ah, Y/N, what the shuck did you do?" He gained the confidence to tease Y/N a little and regretted it once he felt her first collide with his arm.

"Nothing! It was Zart!" She crossed her arms. "And me. A little..."

"You crashed into it." Zart snickered.

Y/N grumbled. "You pushed me!"

"Touche." The blonde track-hoe went back to weeding the carrot patch, laughing to himself.

Gally looked in amusement to Y/N for a moment, his knees almost buckling at the sight of her face scrunched up in anger. It wasn't a vicious or mean kind of rage at Zart, more of a playful one. She was probably plotting her revenge against him. Maybe a bucket of water over the head or worms in the gardening gloves. Whatever it was, it must've been good because she smirked to herself.

"What?" She asked, a brow cocked as she stared at Gally blankly.

"N-Nothing," He brushed it off and turned to the damaged lattice. "You're just—uh—you're cute when you're mad."

When he saw Y/N's face fall, that was when he realized what he'd said. "Wait—no! I mean—I don't—"

The sheer look of horror on the girls face was soon replaced with one of amusement. She laughed a little, brushing it off. "Anything I can help with?" She redirected his attention.

"Uhh, yeah." He cleared his throat. "You see the lumber over there?"

Y/N nodded, eyeing the pile of wood Gally pointed to. "Mind bringing over a couple pieces?"

"Sure!" Y/N happily obliged, running off on her mission.

Gally had been working for close to five minutes and Y/N still hadn't returned with any of the lumber. He knew it shouldn't have taken her any longer than a couple of minutes, so he began to grow suspicious of where she'd gotten off to. Y/N wasn't a slacker so Gally knew she wasn't hiding in the shade somewhere taking a nap.

When he heard the screams, he knew something had gone wrong. Very, very wrong. Those weren't normal screams coming from across the Glade, they were deep, guttural and nauseating. Obviously they weren't coming from Y/N, but...

Then he saw it. Ben was chasing Thomas, the new greenie, out of the woods. Of course, Y/N being the girl she was, had to jump right in and save Thomas.

"Ben!" She yelled, running alongside the tall, blonde runner. "Ben stop it! Thomas didn't do anything!"

Something about that statement had lit a fuse in Ben because his full attention was now on Y/N. His body twitched like a rabid animal and he lunged forwards, knocking Y/N to the ground.

"Shit!" Gally yelled, taking off across the Glade as quick as he could. "No, no—Newt! NEWT! HELP HER!"

He watched as Ben clambered over Y/N and began striking her face repeatedly with already bloody fists. From as far off as Gally currently was, he could hear Y/N's cries for Ben to stop between hits. It was as if he could feel every single strike Ben sent down upon Y/N on his own skin, stinging him like little tongues of fire.

Y/N fought back with a force Gally never would have expected to come from her, but it was nothing compared to the complete mad man on top of her who currently seemed to feel no pain or remorse.

Gally could run, but he could only run so fast. His legs only carried him towards Y/N so fast and the only thing he could think of was that he would never be fast enough. If it weren't for Newt swooping in and taking Ben down with a hit to the head with a shovel, Gally knew things would have turned out much worse.

The impact of Newt's hit was barely enough to disorient Ben long enough for Gally to ram straight into Y/N, throwing her back into the grass a few feet. It was just far enough so Ben couldn't reach her again, and Gally sat there with the girl beneath him, his body shielding hers until he knew the other boys had Ben under control.

"Someone get him!" Gally demanded impatiently, and luckily, some of the boys were already on it. Alby's hollers could be heard from a little ways off and Newt was shouting orders.

Once he knew it was as safe as it could be, Gally loosened his grip and looked down. There was Y/N, curled up beneath him with her eyes shut and arms over her head. Blood was still dripping from her nose and bruises were scattered across her face. "Shit Y/N."

Y/N shakily forced her way to her knees and turned around. Gally, however, wasn't about to let her go incase Ben decided he wanted to take another few shots. He had her trapped in his arms as they watched the situation before them unfold.

"Hey, uh, you can let go." Y/N was breathing hard, and even though she'd sent out words that sounded confident and put together, the grip she had on Gally's arms which were wrapped around her shoulders said otherwise. Her fingers dug into his skin and her head fell back on his chest, unable to hold it up on her own.

Gally was glad he didn't release her because if he hadn't had a strong hold on her, she probably would have thrown herself right back into danger. Newt and a few of the other builders were now holding Ben down, pinned completely to the ground as he wailed in agony.

"HEY! STOP IT!" Y/N screamed, her voice so sharp is cut at Gally's skin. "YOU'RE HURTING HIM!"

Y/N kicked and thrashed, fighting with all of her strength against Gally. The builder wanted just as much as Y/N for Ben to be put somewhere safe until they could sort this out, but the Gladers had to restrain him one way or another so he didn't hurt anyone else. He'd already done enough damage to Y/N, but she was so wrapped up in the situation she either didn't care or she didn't notice.

"He's stung, Y/N!" Gally made sure he forced out the words loud enough so she'd hear it over the commotion. "You really want them to let him go now?!"

She didn't respond which made Gally certain he'd gotten his point across.

Standing there and staring at Ben and feeling Y/N shake under his arms, Gally forgot how quickly his life could be turned upside down. He'd forgotten how little it took to make him hate the world, the creators and everything that happened to him. The ease at which resentment, fright and hostility could swell in his mind and body scared him.

Right now, he needed to get away. He needed to let his friends deal with Ben and his job was to now take Y/N away from what she was seeing. Without thinking twice, Gally picked the girl up and tossed her over his shoulder, making his way toward the medjack hut. He ignored Y/N's cries and the hitting to his back and continued walking as far away from Ben and the others as he could.

"Alright," Gally stopped and let Y/N down from his shoulder, setting her in the grass outside of the medjack hut. "Stay here while I go get some things."

He waited for Y/N to respond but she just stared blankly out into the Glade in shock. "Y/N." He said louder.

That caught her attention, but Gally almost wished it hadn't. Y/N looked up at him with hazy eyes brimming with tears. She looked broken, lost and like she was about to pass out. She looked far, far different than from just ten minutes ago when she'd walked off with a wide smile on her face.

"Stay here, okay?" Gally choked back, waiting for her to nod. She did and so he made his way into the medjack hut, gathering supplies as quick as he could.

When he made his way back out, Y/N was sitting cross legged in the grass, desperately trying to wipe the blood off of her hands. She was panicking, the severity of the situation now settling in. One of the Gladers she knew the best and for the longest was stung and had attacked her so viciously it was obvious he was out of his mind.

"Hey, hey—" Gally knelt down beside Y/N, taking her hands in his and waiting until she stopped struggling. "It's going to be okay. We need to get you fixed up."

"I'm fine, let's go—" She tried to get up but Gally knew she'd try and was ready to push her shoulders back down.

"No, you're not." He looked her deep in the eyes and made her focus. "You're hurt bad. So just...let me look after you, alright?"

Y/N softened under his grip and she gave up. "Ok."

Gally sighed in relief and started at Y/N's legs, wiping away the dirt and mud, moving up her arms which were also covered in dirt, but making sure to wipe away the blood on her hands first. Then, he reached her face, scanning it over sadly.

His expression told Y/N things didn't look good. "Is it bad?" She asked.

Gally pressed his lips together and carefully began to wipe away the blood. "He got you good a few times, I'll tell you that much."

Y/N huffed and winced when Gally got a little too close to the split skin at the end of her brow. "Ouch." She whimpered. "I don't remember it hurting that much a few minutes ago."

"Yeah, your adrenaline is wearing off." Gally explained as he continued to work. "It's gonna hurt a while."

Y/N sat placidly, obviously thinking, her mind spinning in circles.

"Don't ever do that shit again, hear me?" Gally spat. "You could have gotten yourself killed."

"He was going to hurt Thomas!" She fought back. "I had to do something."

Gally took in a sharp breath and tried to relax himself. "You could have gotten help first, alright? Your help is no good if you're dead."

Y/N lowered her gaze in a mixture of shame, guilt and a fear of looking Gally in the eyes.

The builder gently wiped away one last streak of blood before lowering his hands. "All I want is for you to be safe. This place isn't anything without you and wasn't anything until you got here. If I—if we lose you, things won't be the same."

"Thanks Gally." The corner of Y/N's mouth lifted into a sad, sore smile.

Smiling back a little, he put his hands on her shoulders and ran a thumb over her cheek. "We'll figure this out. But stick with me until we know it's safe, okay?"

"Yeah. Okay." Y/N agreed. It was gong to be a long day working with the others to decide Ben's fate. Truth was, they already knew what it was going to be. But, Gally knew that at each others sides, things might just pass by as bearable.