Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Chapter One:

I sit at the table as we are finishing up dinner. My anxiety is at an all time high just knowing that this could be my last meal here with my friends. This could be my last meal with Tobias. I look around, but he isn't anywhere I can see him. He wanted me to celebrate with my friends.

"Tris, are you gonna finish your cake?" I look up to Uriah who is practically drooling over the cake slice on my plate.

It's untouched. I can't stomach it at the moment. I want to throw up and hide away. Or run a marathon. Something that isn't just sitting silently. I push the cake to Uriah and run a hand over my hair. "I’m going to go get something to drink." I stand from the bench and walk off towards the drink station.

"Tris." I stop at the voice of Max stern and demanding. He's standing in front of me with Eric and the other leaders I haven't had the chance to meet other than glances and passing by.

"Sir?" I ask clasping my hands behind my back to hide how shaky they are. I don't know what they want. I don't know what is going on. I just need water.

"Tris, we've seen the results of initiation early." One of the women on Max's left says with a kind smile on her face. Are they kicking me out? "We wanted to ask you a question in private. Do you have a moment?"

They're going to kill me. They know I’m divergent. They're going to kill me. They're going to kill me.

"Of course." I don't have a choice. There are four leaders in front of me asking for me to step outside with them. I can't exactly say no to them. I follow them out of the room glancing back hoping to catch a glimpse of Tobias, but I can't see him.

We walk away from the cafeteria and towards the fear landscape room. But instead of heading up the stairs we turn and head down a separate hallway. They're going to kill me. I just know it.

Maybe? Max opens a door and ushers us in. When we enter it's a beautiful office with plush red carpet and a nice cough with a coffee table. Then there's a desk and filing cabinets galore. What is going on?

"Tris, how do you think you did in initiation?" A man as tall as Tobias, but much more pale and sharp looking.

"I’m not sure." I answer making sure I know where the four people are at all times. The woman is sitting on a spare chair, Eric is standing next to a bowl of snacks, Max is leaning against the front of his desk, and this man is leaning against the back of the couch. "I wasn't a good fighter. I’m okay with a gun, better with knives. My simulation times felt long. I know I was first after the simulation training, but that's not including the Dauntless born. Uriah is much better than I am and well rounded. I’m sure he's first. Lynn and Marlene are better than me as well. I’m sure they're second and third and I’m fourth."

"Humble." The woman snarks looking at Eric. "Hasn't left behind those Abnegation roots just yet. Thought you said she was more dauntless."

"She has her moments." Eric admits begrudgingly.

"Tris, you're first." Max says plainly as he picks at his nails with a knife. "You earned your spot by having the second lowest number of fears in Dauntless." He looks up at me with a knowing look. "I’m sure you are well aware of why Four is called Four."

"I think he's mentioned it once." I try to play dumb causing the woman the laugh with a snort.

"Beatrice, you think we don't know the identity of our number one soldier? You think we don't know you two have had your moments? Him saving you? The fear landscape? He shouldn't have been taking you in for extra practice, but we let him get away with a few things." The woman says grinning at me. "Especially if it means he stays here. Thanks to you we no longer fear he may be leaving Dauntless. He would never leave his girlfriend."

"We are-"

"Tris, we know. No need to lie. You aren't in trouble. He doesn't pick the final ranking. We do as leaders." The man says from the couch as he grabs a bag of chips to munch on. "He'll be forced to do a few extra hours in the control room for giving you extra time in the fear landscape, but you aren't in trouble."

"Quite the opposite." Max says pushing off his desk and walking over. "We want to offer you a leadership position. We've been trying to get Four to become a leader for years and that's failing. But you? You're new, you're just like him. Would do us well to have you with us."

Leadership? Leadership? I thought they were going to kill me! I thought they were going to end my life because they knew I was divergent. But no! Instead they know I'm with Tobias and are offering me leadership. "I don't know."

"Tris we need a fifth leader and you're the best of this class. Think about who else will be picking job." Eric is manipulating me. "Peter isn't too far down the roster and if you don't pick leadership then he might. He will make your life hell." He would. "Or you could be a leader and return the favor."

I look at the four before looking down. If I don't become leader then Peter will and he'll be a second Eric. He'll make my life hell. If I become leader then I could find out what Jeanine is doing. I could be the inside man. Plus I'll get to see my father during meetings. So far the pros outweigh the cons.

I run a hand through my hair and take a deep breath. This is my decision. I can't ask Tobias. I can't ask opinions. This is me. This is my life. This is what I will be doing for the rest of my life.

"Okay." I look up into Max's eyes and stare the man down. "I'll be a leader."

"Perfect." The woman says clapping her hands as she stands. "We'll announce it with the ranking."

"Wait, can't I have a second to tell Four?" I need to tell him before they announce it. I need to prepare him to hear that I’m a leader after he rejected the job. After we know they're messing with Jeanine.

"If you can find him before the announcement. We still have thirty minutes." Eric looks at his watch before waving me off.

I walk out of the room and race back to the cafeteria. I need to find him. I need to tell him before they announce it. I look around the cafeteria trying to spot him.

There! Sitting with his friends he's got a serious face on as he listens to a story Zeke is telling him. I race over and clear my throat.

"Can I talk to you Four? It's about the ranks." I cover quickly staring at him as he stares back at me.

"Y-yeah." He stands and we walk out of the cafeteria. I notice the other leaders walking towards the cafeteria getting ready to make the announcement.

I pull him down a quiet hallway, thankful everyone is in the cafeteria talking about initiation. I run a hand through my hair as I pace in front of Tobias.

"Tris, what is going on?" He grabs my arms to stop me from pacing. "What did you need to talk to me about?"

"The leaders pulled me aside." I whisper, messing with my fingers nervously. I don't know what his reaction will be. "They told me my rank."

"They did?" Tobias asks his hand gently cupping my cheek to make me look at him. "What did they say?"

"I got first." I stare at him as the gears slowly turn in his head. His eyes grow wide and I nod. "They asked me."

"Shit." He hisses looking around. "Do they know?"

"Yeah." I pull his knuckles to my lips. "They're going to give you more hours in the control room for letting me in your fear landscape." He relaxes into my touch letting out a heavy breath.

"Not what I was worried about."

"I don't think they know about that. But they know we're together. And they..." I take a deep breath looking down. "They offered me leadership and I took it."

Tobias lets out a sharp breath his thumb brushing over my cheek as he holds my cheek in his hand. I know he's weighing what to say about it. He pulls me closer and wraps his arms around me.

"I’m proud of you, first of all." He whispers as he presses a kiss to my head. "You need to be careful if you're serious about this. With Jeanine plotting something and working close with Eric."

"I know." I mutter out as I hold his waist and lean into his body. "But if it wasn't me signing up for leadership it would be much worse."

Tobias nods against my head before pulling back. He cups my face again and pulls me into a sweet kiss. When he pulls back he smiles at me. "I’m really proud of you for making first. I think tonight you should stay with me to avoid a butterknife."

I smile and lean up to kiss him again. "You think so? Just to avoid a butterknife?"

"Well, also to celebrate with your boyfriend."

I pull away and stare at him with a raised eyebrow.

"My boyfriend? Since when did we put a label on it?" I tease causing him to rub his face with a roll of his eyes.

"Tris will you be my girlfriend?" He asks finally looking at me once again.

"Of course." I kiss him again before pulling back and looking at my watch. "They're going to be announcing the ranks soon along with me accepting leadership. I wanted to prepare you for that before they did."

"Thank you." Tobias says as he holds my hand and we walk back to the cafeteria. He doesn't release my hand when we enter. He keeps my hand tight in his as we walk back over to the table where his friends are. We don't sit instead we stand and wait for the announcement.

With my entrance the leaders on the balcony walk up to the edge and begin clapping to silence the room. When everyone is silent Max looks over to me before smiling out at the faction.

"Dauntless, tonight we welcome our 12 new membership to the faction. Two initiates have not made the cut." Max announces scanning the room as Dauntless soldiers make their way through the crowd to find the two. "Molly, Drew, your time here is over. Get out."

Heartless, and honestly they deserve it. I watch as the soldiers grab both of them and escort them out of the room. Tobias squeezes my hand tightly as we watch the two struggle and fight until guns are slammed into their temples and they are dragged out.

"They were the bottom ranking initiates and were not what we are looking for in our faction." Max smiles and looks to the other four leaders. "We did have an exceptional initiate who faced every challenge head on and though it was a rocky start she has become a true Dauntless member. She is our number one initiate of this year and has accepted our offer of being the fifth and final leader." He gestures towards me and claps. "Tris!"

The room erupts in cheers as Tobias releases my hand and claps along with the crowd. I stand tall and smile at the crowd, at my home. I look over to my friends who have slacked jaws as they clap.

Max silences the room once again. "As for the rest of the initiates here are the ranks. You will all be handed a list of open job positions and units you may choose from. Ranking does affect the order you choose."

With that the four retreat from the balcony and the room erupts to life once more. The people around me clapping me on the shoulder and congratulate me. I smile and thank them before a hand touches my lower back and I turn to see Tobias grinning at me.

"Congratulations again." He says softly though his voice isn't lost in the crowd. He leans down and kisses me.

"Tris!" Will and Christina shout as they finally made their way over with Uriah, Lynn, and Marlene.

"Hey congrats!" Uriah hugs me and ruffles my hair before shoving my head a bit. "God can't believe you beat me."

I giggle as I try to fix my hair. "Should have been faster in the simulations." I say punching his shoulder. "Or are you a pansycake?"

His jaw drops as he presses his hand to his chest gasping at me.

"Solid burn! She got you good!" Zeke shouts wrapping his arm around Uriah's shoulder. "But don't flirt too much with her, she's Four's girl."

Christina's jaw drops again as she stares at me. "You're what?"

I blush a little as I look at Tobias who is just raising an eyebrow at Christina practically daring her to say something. "Guess he's not that bad in the end." I laugh a little wrapping my arm around his waist. "He has his moments."

"But you and him?" Will asks his eyes also giant as he analyses the situation. "You slapped the shit out of him. He called you pathetic. And what did you call him that first day?"

"She called him approachable as a bed of nails! Not to mention he threw knives at her!" Christina crosses her arms. "I need to know everything right now."

I lean into Tobias as he rubs my shoulder and sigh. "You know how I said I didn't know who saved me that night?" Christina nods. "I lied. Four saved me and he patched up my wounds and took care of me."

Will stares at me before looking at Four and laughing. "That one night makes so much more sense now."

"What?" Tobias asks and I look up at him then back at Will.

"The night he said you looked good?" Will says and I stare at him before laughing.

"Woah woah woah! Number Boy admitted she looked good?" Zeke asks cutting in shoving me away from Tobias and wrapping his arms around him. "My Number Boy? My shy, reclusive, hates to talk to everyone, hates to compliment anyone Number Boy? My Number Boy? My husband? The love of my life?"

Tobias just looks bored as Zeke rants about him. He pushes his hand against the other's face when Zeke goes to kiss him. "I’m not shy nor am I reclusive." Though his ears are turning a bit pink at the attention. "And when did I even say this?"

I stare at him before laughing. "You don't remember?"

"No." He says staring at me concerned about what he said.

Will laughs out loud clapping his hands together a bit. "Oh god, Four." He laughs wrapping his arms around my shoulders. "We were heading to get tattoos during some break and you were drunk near the pit. You stopped Tris and said she looked different. You did offer for her to hang out before saying she shouldn't see you like that. She asked if you meant drunk because you were wasted, but no you said "real"." Will adds on quotation marks around the last word. "Guess that didn't last long."

Tobias' ears are slowly turning more and more red. I guess I'll save him. "Okay, okay, we get it. Unlikely pair." I say and Zeke snorts before trying to cover it up. Suspicious. "The important thing is that we made it through initiation!"

Marlene takes the chance to cheer and distract everyone with me. "Right! God I was so sure I wasn't going to make it!" She said softly running a hand through her hair. "But we did it! And Tris!" She screams grabbing my shoulders. "You're a leader now!"

Oh come on!

"Right!" Zeke screams grabbing my face in his hands. "Are you okay? Did they threaten you?" He asks feeling my face his breath is hot and stinks of alcohol. "They've been trying to get my baby Number Boy for years but now they have you?"

Tobias helps wrestle Zeke off of me and pulls me back to him to keep everyone's hands off me. Thankfully he's noticed the amount of hands on me was starting to overwhelm me.

"Think about it." I say pointing to the ranking. "Who on that list would want to be leader? Uriah? No. Lynn? No. Marlene? No. Peter would be next to choose." I say crossing my arms. "There was no way I was letting that monster be leader next to Eric. Not after he tried to kill me."

Everyone hisses at the idea of Peter being a leader. "Okay, makes sense. Makes sense." Shauna says looking between me and Tobias. "Just be careful."

"I will be." I say leaning into Tobias as I yawn a bit. Today has been an emotional rollercoaster. With the fear landscape, my peaceful moment with Tobias. I can't wait to crawl into bed.

"Awe Trissypoo is tired." Uriah coos at me and I smack his hand away from me.

"Call me that again and I will gut you." I threaten with another yawn.

"There's our girl." I shiver at the voice calling me that, Eric. "Tris, report tomorrow first thing to Max's office before breakfast. We will have breakfast provided. We need to get started on your training immediately." Eric says as he hands out the papers to the rest of the group. He pulls out a folder and hands it over to me. "A bit of introductory information, read over that and bring it with you." He says before handing me a paper. "These are leader units available. You will be expected to pick one of these to live in." With that he walks off and I open my folder.

Far too many words to be reading at a time like this. I’m far too tired for this. I look up at Tobias who brushes his thumb over my cheek before nodding silently.

"We're heading out for the night. To avoid any butterknife situations, Tris is going to stay with me." Tobias explains as he pulls away from me. He pulls Uriah into a hug and pats his back. He ruffles Lynn's hair and rubs Marlene's shoulder. "Proud of you three." He said before looking at Christina and Will who look horrified to get physically touched by him. "Good work you two." He shakes their hands before holding his hand out to me. "Excellent work." He whispers against my hair as he pulls me close and starts to guide me out of the cafeteria.

I lean on him as we walk through the bustling faction we both call home now. This will hopefully remain our home for years to come. So long as the idiot leaders and Jeanine don't mess with anything.

Chapter Text

Chapter Two:

I wake to the shower running in Tobias' small unit. I stretch and look over to the small alarm clock he has. It's 5am, but I don't have to be at Max's office until 7:30. I lean over and flick on the lamp before slowly getting out of bed. I grab my folder from the small desk before climbing back in the bed and opening it.

The first page is just an outline of the Dauntless manifesto but it doesn't look right. There's parts that don't sound like Dauntless, Tobias will know more. I set it aside before looking at the second page. A list of meetings I'll be attending such as the council meeting next week, a few meetings with Candor, a few meetings with Amity, one meeting with Abnegation, and far too many meetings with Erudite (most just say it's a meeting with Jeanine). That automatically puts me on edge. They're dragging me into the mess immediately.

I move to the next page and start to read over the list of items I will be issued as a leader and a list of places that will service my electronics and a list of shops that the other leaders use frequently. The next page maps out open leader units and how big they are.

"Tris?" I look up to see Tobias in his usual pair of black jeans and a black shirt. "Hey, been calling out for a minute." He sits on the bed next to me and gently reaches up to brush his thumb between my eyebrows causing the muscles that I didn't know were flexed to relax.

"Hey, sorry. Got caught up reading." I set the file down and look over to the clock and it's only 5:30. "How was your shower?"

"It was fine. What has you so worried?" Tobias asks before seeing the manifesto on his pillow. "May I?" I nod and he picks it up to read it.

"It doesn't look right to me. Maybe I just don't know it, but it just sounds wrong." I say trying to remember what was in it. "A lack of knowledge is what leads to our fears and we must learn to be able to face them?"

Tobias nods as he chews on his thumbnail, a bad habit I've noticed about him. "That's not the original manifesto. That like is supposed to be that we believe in freedom from fear, in denying fear the power to influence our decisions." He sets the paper down and grabs my schedule before frowning even more.

"If you keep chewing your thumb it'll bleed." I gently take his hand from his mouth and hold it. "It worries me how much they're throwing me into this early. They must be trying to move fast."

Tobias gently brushed over my knuckles with his thumb as he nods. "They're definitely trying to close up ranks and keep us busy. Giving me more hours in the control room, keeping you busy with training and meetings. Won't give us hardly any time to figure out the plan."

I nod and sigh as I lean back against the headboard my eyes immediately going to the "FEAR GOD ALONE" graffiti on his white wall.

"What's this?" Tobias grabs the last piece of paper I was looking at and I smile at him.

"Leader units, I have to live in one apparently because it's close to the offices." I look down at the list and then back up at him. "There's a few and I’m sure I could tour them before deciding. Or we could tour them if you're growing tired of your unit."

"Beatrice Prior," I scrunch my nose at the name, "are you asking me to move in with you?"

"Only if you promise never to call me Beatrice again." I giggle as I move the papers and pull him gently so he sits with me against the headboard. "They sound giant from the descriptions." I point to one that has a balcony with a pool. "This one sounds ginormous. I’m sure all our friends would never leave us alone."

"Our friends?" Tobias looks at me with a dazzling smile. "I like the sound of that. Our friends, our unit."

I smile and gently pull him into a kiss before pulling back and looking at the list. "I'll ask if we can tour them today. Should we make a small list of ones we might like?"

Tobias nods and looks back down at the list. "I like this we stuff." He whispers to himself and I lean on his shoulder after he grabs a pen from his nightstand. He puts a star next to the one with the pool. Then one with two home offices and a big library.

"Ooh!" I point to another unit that has a big balcony space with a hot tub and a view of the Navy Pier. "We could probably see the Ferris wheel from it."

"You and your heights." He chuckles but puts a star next to it.

We do this for a bit and cross of units that have nurseries and children rooms. We don't need to think about that for a few years, if Dauntless is even around in a few years. We end up having five units we want to tour. One with the pool, one with the library, one with the hot tube, one with a small greenhouse, and one very similar to this unit. It has nothing extra only one bedroom and bathroom, a common room, kitchen/dining room, and one office.

The alarm makes me jump and I look over to see it's 7. I need to shower and get ready. Wait. "Tobias, I don't have any clothes."

"I went to the dorms after you fell asleep and asked Christina to help me gather your things. She added in more stuff than I think is yours, but I can't say for certain." Tobias points to my duffel bag and then a few shopping bags next to it.

"Of course she went shopping and bought me things." I groan as I get off the bed and start to search the bags. Though I can't be mad for more than a second because inside the bags are more mature, business like clothing. I quickly grab my undergarments and hide them from view before grabbing a new black power suit and then a maroon bodysuit.

I walk into the bathroom and lock the door, not that I think Tobias will do anything, but... god it's stupid of me to lock the door but whatever.

I carefully pull off my black yoga pants and black shirt I slept in. I step into his shower and start to relax under the warm spray. I notice my own body wash and shampoo, but I really just love his own and I know I won't see him for hours. I use his soap and shampoo before I step out of the shower and dry off with a fresh towel he put out for me.

I pull on my underwear and bra before pulling on the maroon bodysuit. It's mostly solid. It has a notch right at my cleavage, but there's sheer fabric that offers some coverage to my chest and my arms. It shows off my ravens very well. I pull on the black pants of the power suit and smile at how they are high waisted with six gold buttons. They're a nice soft satin and a close fit but not skintight. Lastly I pull on the blazer that's cropped with two decorative buttons. It's also nicely fitted to my body and not oversized. I stand on my toes trying to look in the mirror but huff when I’m too short.

I open the door and see Tobias pulling on his boots. "Hey, what do you think? I’m too short to look in your mirror."

Tobias looks up and his eyes wander over my body as he takes in the outfit. "You look beautiful." He smiles as he gets up and pulls me into a kiss. "I don't have a hairdryer, I’m sorry." He says as he kisses my wet hair.

I smile and shrug as I pull him down for another kiss. "Do I look like a leader?" I ask as I start to braid my hair into a French braid.

"Yeah, more than Eric does. You look like you. I know that sounds silly, but sometimes I can still see Beatrice in you. Which isn't a bad thing. But now? Now you look like Tris."

I grin at the praise as I finish off my braid and go back to my duffel bag. I pull out my small makeup bag before I go back to the bathroom. "You don't happen to have a stool so you?"

Tobias grabs one of his barstools and brings it into the bathroom for me.

I kneel on it and carefully apply some blush and smoky grey liner. I add on mascara and then a lip stain that makes my lips look the same color as my shirt. I finish and pull the stool back out of the room before grabbing my combat boots and socks. I pull them on and lace up my shoes. Finally I’m ready.

I look at the clock and take a deep breath. I collect all my papers and put them in the folder. "Will I see you at lunch?" I ask as we exit his unit together so he can lock it since I don't have a key.

"Yeah, you should. Hopefully they give you a break for lunch." He says as we start to walk together towards the Pit.

I comfortably hold his hand as we walk through our faction together. "Then I will see you at lunch, hopefully with news about us touring the units."

We stop at the diverging paths. He's going towards the cafeteria and I’m heading to Max's office. he gently pulls me into a kiss before releasing me.

"Enjoy your first day, madame leader." He gives me a salute with a silly grin on his face.

"I will try to, Four." I gently reach up and wipe off some stain that transferred in the kiss since it hasn't dried yet.

"Leave it. I want everyone to know I've been kissing the fifth leader of the faction." He grins at me.

"Who are you and what did you do with Four?" I giggle before kissing him again. "Hope you stick around a little longer. I could get used to this treatment."

Tobias gives me a smile as he rolls his eyes before shooing me off.

I turn and head down the path to the Pire where my first meeting as Dauntless leader will begin. What will we go over? What will I be doing as leader? And how am I going to stop them from helping Erudite destroy the faction I was born into.

Chapter Text

Chapter Three:

When I walk into the office I’m greeted by the smell of scrambled eggs, chocolate chip pancakes, and coffee. I notice almost all the other leaders are here except Eric.

"Tris! Welcome!" The woman grins as she walks over and pulls me into a hug. "I’m so excited to have another woman on the leadership team. I’m Evin and I mainly oversee the policing of the factionless and the fence workers." She pulls me further into the office where Max and the other man are.

"Morning Tris." The man says not looking up from his papers until he's done reading a paragraph. "I’m Eagle and I oversee the infractions, I attend all Candor trials, and I was working with the ambassadors."

"That's your job now." Max says before gesturing to the food. "Please, get some breakfast."

I carefully load up a plate of food with my folder under my arm. I take my food and cup of coffee over to the red chair and set everything on the small coffee table in front of me. "So I'll be working with the ambassadors?"

Max nods as he chews. "Yes. You'll be taking Eagle's seat at the council and going to all ambassador meetings."

I nod and pull my legs up on the chair as I pull my plate of food up to eat as I listen.

"We figured the Abnegation would listen to one of their own." Eric says from the door and I glare at him.

"I’m not Abnegation anymore." I set my plate down and stare at him. "In fact didn't I rank higher than you Eric?"

"What he means," Evin says, "is we thought Abnegation and the council would listen to someone they know. They don't like us very much and we're getting impatient with them. So, hopefully adding you to the leaders and the council will get them to listen to our concerns."

I stare at Eric and raise my eyebrow. "Is that what you meant, Eric?" I probably should not be pressing his buttons right now, but I don't care. I’m over him constantly trying to kick me out. "I mean, it would stupid to assume I'm still Abnegation when, how did you put it?" I trail off tapping my chin a little. "Dauntless chose me? Yeah, you said we chose Dauntless and now Dauntless got to choose its members with initiation. And by those standards and by Max offering me a leadership position before final ranks were posted, I'd say I was chosen. Wouldn't you?"

Max clears his throat as he steps between me and Eric trying to release some of the tension in the room. "Enough with the pissing match. Eric, she's a member no a leader of Dauntless and you will respect her as one. Tris, Eric is a leader of this faction and you will respect him as such. We put you as the leader of ambassadors, Tris, because you have a way of commanding attention and forcing people to listen to you without being brutish. Eric told us about the knife throwing. How you stood up for your friend."

I set my coffee down with shaky hands and nod. I turn back to Eric and get up to hold my hand out to him. "My apologies, Eric. Truce?"

Eric begrudgingly takes my hand and shakes it muttering his acceptance of our truce before walking off to grab a cup of coffee.

I sit back down and look at Max. "I’m sorry for my behavior, but I am tired of being demeaned after everything I've withstood during initiation. What else do we need to discuss?"

Max moves back to his desk and looks at his papers. "We need to show you your desk, and ask about the unit you wish to live in, if Four will be living with you or not. Then assign you your devices and calendar." Max looks up and smiles at the three others. "You three are dismissed to handle your usual business. Eagle, please have any and all information you have on the ambassadors and the ongoing issues being discussed at the council meetings prepared. After lunch please have a meeting with Tris to go over the information."

The three walk out and I’m left alone with Max. He's a typical Dauntless member appearance wise. He had a few tattoos on his dark skin, a few piercings in his ears and nose, but his hair is cut short similar to Abnegation.

"Tris, I will not have infighting between my leaders. What you pulled today, while probably necessary, must not happen again. Do you understand me?"

"Yes, sir. I apologize."

"Good, now, I’m assuming Four will be moving in with you?" Max asks causing my face to flush.

In Abnegation it would never be allowed until after marriage. We wouldn't be able to get married until we were both 18 1/5 years old or older. But we aren't Abnegation. We don't wear grey. I hate that I even thought of it. I’m Dauntless and I just made that argument to Eric. God I’m stupid.

"Yes." I finally say pulling out my folder to pull out the list of available units we had marked. "We would like an opportunity to tour the units if possible."

"Only five? Evin wanted to see all the units before she picked." Max chuckles before nodding. "If Four is free we can tour them after lunch before I hand you over to Eagle."

I nod and smile. "Thank you."

"Now, let me show you your office everything you will need is in there." Max stands and grabs a key from his desk before walking out of the room. We turn to the right and walk down the hall a little.

I know it's my office before he even stops because the door has my name on it. It's a heavy black metal door that's just like every other door in Dauntless. But the moment we are inside I see that one wall is made of glass completely letting me see out onto the platform of the main entrance of Dauntless.

I step back out of the room and notice the door next to my office that must least outside. I walk back in and smile at the office. It has a few thriving plants, a nice dark wood desk, filing cabinets, a lovely dark grey couch with a nice coffee table. My chair is hidden behind boxes stacked on my desk.

"This is your office. I've heard you like heights and well, some of us aren't too fond of them." Max smiles as he watches me.

"I’m guessing no one else wanted this office?" I ask as I walk around a little noticing that it's clean and the carpet is thick and soft to walk on. It's a nice office. When I make it to the desk I look at all the boxes.

"Ah, here are a few necessities." Max grabs a small box and holds it out to me. "This is your phone, I’m sure Four can show you how to use it. It has all the leadership numbers programmed and we have yours. Then you have a laptop, a tablet, an electronic pencil for the tablet, and a smart watch that can show you texts and answer texts and calls even if you don't have your phone next to you. When we move you into a unit you will have a home computer installed into your home office."

I nod as I listen and look at everything. "Wow. This is a lot." I take a deep breath and look at Max who stand nearly a foot taller me like Tobias does. "So, what all will I be doing on a day to day basis?"

Max smiles and takes a seat in one of the plush chairs near my desk before motioning me to sit in my office chair. "Like I said earlier you will be in charge of the ambassadors and the council meetings. On a more day to day you'll be working on managing projects for Dauntless. Such as maintenance projects or any thing that needs a leader to approve. You'll look over and approve any new businesses or requests new units. Next year you'll be in charge of bathing a list of units for the initiates who pass, but the others have already taken care of that and passed out the list to the others."

I nod as I listen and look at my office a bit more. A leader position isn't so bad.

"Do you have any questions for me?" Max asks after a moment.

"No, sir."

"Please, just Max is fine."

"Okay. I don't have any questions other than me and Four seeing the units before we decide which one we want to live in."

Max nods and stands up before looking at his watch. "We have some time before lunch, I'll call him to my office and we can go look at the units."

We walk out of my office and Max locks it before handing me the key. We head back to his office and breakfast has been cleared so I sit down on the couch and look around. It's similar to my office just more metal based furniture as opposed to my wood based furniture.

"After lunch, as I said earlier, I’m going to release you to Eagle to go over some of your new technology and your work calendar. There are quite a few meetings coming up as you saw on the paper calendar. I'll make sure your calendar is set up completely with only meetings you must attend." Max explains before looking up at me. "Why don't you go back to your office and grab your phone?"

I nod and walk out of his office before walking back into my own. I grab the small box before heading back. When I get to the door I see Tobias coming down the hall obviously not noticing me. His Four mask is on tight and I see his forefinger scratching at his thumb. I cross my arms and raise my eyebrow at him.

"Thought I told you that you would cause your thumb to bleed if you didn't stop picking at it?" I smile at him but worry why he's so stressed.

His eyes meet mine and his ears turn red. "Hey." His face softens and I see the man I love. "Any idea why Max called for me?"

I nod and open the door so we can head inside. "We ended early so he said we could tour the units before lunch. Right, Max?"

"Right, I have all five keys." Max said holding them up with a smile. "Shall we go?"

Tobias and I follow Max up a staircase and down a hall. Tobias gently takes my hand in his as we walk. I’m a little nervous because this is going to be us choosing our home. I lean on Tobias a little as Max opens the first door.

"This is the basic unit." Max says as he holds the door open for us.

He's right it is basic, dark wood floors, dark red walls. It's honestly not any different than the unit Tobias is in now. There's one bedroom, one bathroom, a home office, and a kitchen. Well, barely a kitchen. It's a kitchen, dining room, living room area. Small, somewhat suffocating.

I look at Tobias and shake my head. "I don't like how small it is. I feel like I would be constantly bumping into you." I say and he nods.

"Yeah, I don't like the one big room that's supposed to be three rooms. With furniture it'll be even smaller." Tobias says and I can't tell Max is shocked that we're turning our noses up at such a nice unit.

It is nice, but like I told Eric we aren't Abnegation anymore. But it's most than that, Tobias is claustrophobic and if I feel confined I can't imagine what he feels. We walk out and I feel Tobias take a deep breath as we walk up a set of stairs. Down another hall and Max opens another door for us.

"This is the unit with the library you notated." Max says before allowing us to explore.

I walk in and the living room is separated from the dining room which is still connected to the kitchen but the kitchen is bigger and it's just one of the counters that truly separates the dining room from the counter. Tobias and I walk down a hall and find the office, a bathroom, the library, and then the bedroom which has a nice bathroom attached to it. It's nice. I’m sure with some furniture it could be nice, but we both will be working a lot and I don't see us using the library as often as we both would like. Or at least I would like.

"Can we see the others?" I ask as we walk back out of the unit. "It's nice but I don't think we'll be using the library as much as I would like to use the library and the others have balconies and I’m more excited about those than the library."

"I agree, and I think one of the ones with the balcony has a second office so I could do some work from home if need be." Tobias says and I smile at him because we're on the same page about him having an office as well since I know he does a lot of work.

Max takes us down the hallway further and into a unit. The common room is massive. To the right there's a wall with dark brown barn style doors with textured glass windows. I carefully open them and am greeted by a dining room that's honestly as big as Tobias' living room/kitchen/dining room. When I turn to the left I see a black and silver marbled bar counter that transitions into the rest of the counters for the kitchen. The appliances are all matte black with silver accents. When I walk into it, it has a lot of space to move around in and cook. I continue to walk out through the open archway and find myself in a hallway that juts off from the common room. When I go down the hallway there's a set of stairs to my left and a doorway to my right. I open the door to find a bathroom. I close the door before turning to go up the stairs. It's a beautiful and wide spiral staircase.

When I get to the top I stop, which causes Tobias to bump into me. In front of the staircase is a big glass wall like my office. I step up to the platform and cross the wide hallway to the glass doors and open it. When I step out onto the balcony my heart stops. In the distance I can see the Navy Pier. I walk over to the railing and just stare at the beautiful view of our city.

"I’m guessing this is our unit?" Tobias asks from behind me.

I turn and look at him, he won't come out on to the balcony so he's just at the door. I nod as I grin at him. "What do you think?" I ask as I walk back over and stand in front of him. There's a step down into the balcony so I’m even shorter than him than normal.

"I like it." He gently wraps his arms around me and lifts me so he can pull me back inside before setting me down. "Definitely our unit."

I turn to Max, who is shocked to see Tobias smiling and relaxed and actually being Tobias rather than Four. "This is the unit we choose."

This gets Max out of his shock and he smiles. "Perfect, we have some paperwork to sign in my office, but here are your keys." Max hands me and Tobias a key. "That reminds me, Tris, we didn't give you your welcome packet. We'll also need to give that to you when we get to the office."

All of us go back down the stairs, out of the unit, down the hall, down the stairs and then back to his office.

Max grabs a few things before looking around. "I forgot your office has the unit information, Tris."

I nod and we all walk out of his office and to my own. I unlock it with a grin on my face as I look at the window. I’m so glad we decided on a balcony. It will give me the fresh air and the sunlight I so desperately crave sometimes.

Max grabs a few more forms from various filing cabinets before carefully moving the boxes off my desk. He takes my office chair and Tobias and I sit in the chairs across from my desk. "Alright, Four, here is the paperwork you need to sign to terminate your residency to your unit. You'll of course still have access to move your things but when you finish moving please return your keys to Tris. Then this paperwork is to sign for residency in the new unit."

I carefully sign my name on the residency paperwork before handing it over to Tobias as he hands the termination papers to Max.

"Tris, here is your welcome packet. It has your points card in it. This card will also help you gain access to the Dauntless members only areas. Inside is also a list of those areas. Your account has already been loaded with your points from initiation as well as your first leader pay." Max says before standing up.

I stand and we shake hands. Tobias shakes his hand and Max leaves the room. I turn to Tobias and grin. "We have a unit."

"We do." Tobias gently pulls me into his arms and spins slightly so he can rest against the front of my desk. "It's perfect. Two offices, the view of the Ferris wheel, a big kitchen, and of course you."

"Speaking of the kitchen, hope you missed Abnegation food. That is all I know how to cook." I say leaning on his chest listening to his heartbeat.

"I did miss it, but I had a great teacher when it comes to cooking Dauntless food."

I look up at him with a raised eyebrow. "Who?"

"Zeke's mom Hana. She taught me how to cook because she thought it would help me get a girlfriend."

I can't help but laugh a little as I look at his slightly flushed face. "Well, maybe not get one, but keep one happy? Absolutely." I giggle and he pulls me into a kiss. We part when my stomach grumbles.

"Speaking of keeping you happy, let's go get some lunch." Tobias says pushing off the desk. He keeps his arm around my shoulders as we walk out. I pull away and lock the door before happily going back to his side under his arm.

Chapter Text

Chapter Four:

When we make it to the cafeteria I see all of our friends sitting together rather than separate like they had been last night. Tobias and I walk over and I sit down next to Christina as Tobias sits next to some other girl I don't know.

"Is this her?" One of the guys asks pointing his fork at me.

"Yes!" Zeke grins form his position across from Tobias. "Okay! Everyone!" Zeke taps his metal cup against the table to get the attention he wants. "Introductions are in order! That is Tris, first jumper, number one, new leader, but most importantly!" He drums his hands on the table before stopping and shaking his hands in my directions. "Four's girlfriend!"

I feel my face heat up from the attention as I grab food from the center to add to my plate. "Hey." I awkwardly wave to everyone who cheers.

"You actually exist! This is insane!" One boy laughs as a few girls giggle. "I seriously can't believe the entire two years I've known him, he's been silent and lonely and boring and just barely here. Then a few weeks ago this man is going on and on and on about some girl he met. We thought he went crazy."

Zeke nods his head as he shovels cake into his mouth. "I even tried to get him admitted into the infirmary, but Shauna stopped me."

"He wasn't crazy!" Shauna says shooting me an apologetic look. "He was just in love. But geez it was annoying. It was always "she did this" or "today she" or "she's so beautiful". But nothing will compare to him being drunk off his ass talking about you."

I look at Tobias who is blushing and trying to ignore all the attention on him. I gently rest my hand on his leg as I look at the group of people. "Okay, I get it. But more importantly, who are you people?"

"Right!" The girl next to Tobias leans forward so I can see her. "I’m Imara, Dauntless born and raised, I work in the control room with Four. I’m dating Mia." She points to Mia who is across from her.

"They separate us because they think we get too handsy." Mia giggles as she waves to me. "I’m Mia, Amity born. I was in Four's initiation class. I almost beat him in fights."

"It was our first fight ever and I couldn't figure out how to beat you in a fight without hitting you." Tobias grumbles. "And I’m still sorry about the black eye I gave you."

"It was initiation and you were told to fight me. Enough apologizing over a black eye." Mia says before looking to her left.

"I’m Kai, another Dauntless born, been friends with Zeke since we could walk. Still hurt he got a better best friend." Kai laughs before looking to his left.

"Zora, been dating Kai since upper levels, finally made him an honest man last year, and!" She bands her mug against the table to get everyone's attention before standing up. "We're expecting! Sweet girl will be here in 6 months!" She stands up and shows off her tiny baby bump.

Everyone cheers for her and I smile and clap before returning to my food. Zara points to me and I wave to everyone.

"You all know me already it seems. I’m Tris, and these are my friends from initiation." I turn to Christina who grins and wraps her arm around my shoulder.

"I’m Christina, Tris' best friend. And Four, if you ever hurt her I'll throw you in the chasm." She threatens before looking at me. "Still can't believe you're with him."

I stare at her and frown. Thought she would be happy for me. "What do you mean?"

"When you first met him you called him a jerk and said he was as approachable as a bed of nails."

"I didn't call him a jerk. You called him a jerk. I said he didn't like being laughed at."

"Tomato, tomahto. Point still stands, he's a jerk." Christina pulls away and crosses her arms.

"He is not. He had to be tough on us in initiation otherwise we wouldn't have made it through and Molly and Drew would still be here." I remind her huffing as I scoot closer to Tobias who wraps his free arm around me.

"Christina, I promise if I ever hurt Tris, I'll let you throw me into the chasm. Deal?" He holds out his hand to her caging me in his arms as I lean into his strong body.

"If I ever see one tear or hear her cry about you, you're gone." Christina promises as she shakes his hand before turning to Will.

"Hey, I’m Will. Nice to meet all of you." Will says waving to the table as Tobias turns back to his food but keeps his arm around my back.

Lynn, Marlene, Uriah, Shauna, and Zeke all introduce themselves before we all continue eating and the conversation picks up.

I feel my pocket vibrate and I pull the phone out of it to look at it. Only problem, I have no idea how to work this thing. "Four?"

Tobias turns his attention to me and smiles a little. "Press this button then swipe up."

I do and a message opens from Eagle telling me he's running behind on other meetings and needs to push ours back to an hour after lunch ends.

"How do I text back?" I ask and Tobias shows me how to pull up the keyboard. I type out a confirmation text before putting my phone away after Tobias shows me how to lock the phone. I'll ask him to show me the other things about it later.

Lunch continues and when we finish I look at Tobias as we walk out together. "Do you have to go back to work?"

"Yeah, but I already called for movers to move our things to the new unit and after dinner we can go shopping for more furniture." Tobias says as we stand outside of the cafeteria.

I nod and smile at him. "I’m excited to start this new life with you." I grin and he gently pulls me into a kiss before pulling away as his phone rings.

"Gotta go." He kisses me one last time before walking off with his phone to his ear and his free hand picking at his thumb.

"Tris!" Christina shouts as she practically jumps on my back. "Aren't you so official in the clothes? I’m glad you like them! I was really shocked when Four gave me his point card and told me to buy you clothes."

I cross my arms at her and frown. "Don't pick fights with him. He's really nice and sweet when we're in private. He's not going to hurt me."

Christina frowns and crosses her own arms. "I have a right to be concerned. He's older than you, he's scary, and he's thrown knives at you. You're my best friend."

"And he's my boyfriend. I didn't threaten Will." I gesture to Will who is standing next to Christina. "I love you, I do. But please don't make me choose between you and him. That's unfair."

"Tris, she won't make you choose between them." Will says trying to stop us from fighting. "Christina, let's just see how this goes. Okay? Let them be happy."

"Fine!" Christina pulls me into a bone crushing hug. "I hate fighting with you and after the whole Al situation I never want to fight like that again. I'll apologize to Four at dinner."

"Thank you." I pull my hair from the French braid since it's dry now and shake out the waves. "I have an hour before I have to go back to work. I really need a backpack with everything they've given me. Want to go shopping?"

"Yes!" Christina links her arm with mine and starts to drag me off.

"Wait! Shopping!" I look over my shoulder and see Shauna, Marlene, and Mia all running towards us.

"Can we join?" Marlene asks as we all walk together and I nod.

"I just really need a backpack and probably some more clothes. I think Christina only bought me two outfits." I say as we follow Shauna through Dauntless towards the stores.

"Well then we need to get you some more leader clothes, little miss." Mia says linking her arm with mine.

"The guys are inviting me to go play paintball." Will says kissing Christina's cheek before running off.

"Perfect! Girl shopping! I need new lingerie!" Marlene grins causing Shauna to groan.

"I don't want to think about you showing that off to my future brother-in-law." She shudders as we walk into a store but she does turn to me. "But you, are you gonna get some new lingerie? We heard you two talking about moving in together?"

"WHAT?" Christina's voice echos in the store.

"I had to move into a leader unit since they're closer to the offices. Four and I are moving in together." I want to crawl into my skin and disappear right now. "And no. I just need the basics. I’m not. We're not... not ready for that."

"Oh!" Christina gets this knowing grin on her face and I glare at her.

"Say a word and I will cut your tongue out." I hiss stepping close to her.

"Damn." Mia laughs stepping between us a little. "Now I get why she's with Four. She's just as scary sometimes."

I continue to glare at Christina who puts her hands up but her smile doesn't drop. I roll my eyes and walk off from them. I just need the basic stuff. I grab basic bikini cut high waisted underwear and some black bras. I grab a few sports bras and check out.

When the other girls finish we go to the next store and the next. I bought several new outfits to wear to different meetings. I made sure I had some modest clothing for when I go to the council meetings and ambassador meetings in Abnegation. I bought a few more pairs of shoes: tennis shoes, another pair of combat boots, a pair of combat boots that are chunky heels, and Christina talked me into actual heels but I doubt I'll ever wear them.

I look at my phone and see I have twenty minutes until my meeting. I race my things to my unit and set them at the door before racing back down to the offices.

"Tris!" I look and see Eagle just opening his door to let someone walk out. "Ready?"

I nod and he gestures towards my office. He locks his own and follows me into my office as I unlock it.

"Alright, let's get your computer set up and logged in." Eagle carefully wakes up my computer on my desk and logs in before turning to me. "This is your username," he points to the first little bar, "now you get to choose your password."

I type in a password before we get down to him teaching me about the technology a little before pulling up a calendar.

"This is your work calendar. Today we're just going to focus on going over the ambassadors and the meeting minutes then tomorrow we will have a meeting with all the ambassadors which will include the new one who chooses tonight." Eagle explains since everyone else in my initiate class will choose their jobs tonight at dinner, we have to put off me meeting the ambassadors until tomorrow. "Then the next day all the leaders and ambassadors will go to the Hub to meet the council and the ambassadors. Every faction normally gains one ambassador each year as one retires or other things happen. You will also attend a few Candor interrogations with me as it requires two leaders and until now Eric would go with me. But he has other things to work on so it will be you and me from now on."

We continue working on my computer skills including my skills with my tablet and laptop. I realize I never grabbed a backpack. I'll just have to get one later.

After three hours of us working Eagle says he has another meeting to attend and that I’m free to go for the day.

I thank him for his help before we leave my office and I lock my door. I go to the Pit and find the store Eagle had told me about when I asked him about backpacks.

"Hello." A retail worker with long spiked red hair says as I walk in.

"Hi." I look around a little but don't see anything I like.

"Need help?" The same worker asks and I nod.

"I need a backpack, the other leaders said they got theirs here." I say and the retail worker smiles.

"You're the new leader, Tris right? First jumper?" When I nod they hug me. "Welcome to Dauntless. Okay, so, for leaders we have a few more options in the back."

I follow them into the back and see more options. I stop at a black leather rectangular bag. It has the Dauntless logo on the front flap and fake straps with heart buckles. The pockets underneath have the same fake straps but regular buckles. There's a pocket on the side with a matching water bottle and the seams of the bag have small silver spikes on them.

"This one." I say before looking at the pockets. "Could you embroider or imprint something on the pockets?"

"Of course!" The retail worker says. "What do you want them to have on them? And I can add it to the water bottle as well." They pull out a binder full of different letter fonts similar to the book at Tori's tattoo parlor.

"Can you do IV and VI on the pockets and water bottle?" I ask before pointing to a font. "In this font?"

"Of course! Give me just a moment and I can get that done for you." They walk off into the back and I browse the bags.

Does Tobias have a backpack? Maybe I could get him one later. Like a present. I continue to look around when I see a key chain. It's metal and has the Navy Pier painted on.

"Those keychains are brand new." The retail worker says walking back with my new backpack. "Would you like one?"

"Can they be customized?" When they nod I nod and look back at them. "Over the Ferris wheel can you put IV and VI in the same font? And I'd like two."

"Absolutely, I'll get them!" They scurry off again and I’m left along but for a shorter amount of them. When they return they hand me the keychains.

I pay and leave the store before heading up to our new unit. I unlock the door and grab my bags from my earlier shopping trip. I smile seeing the small couch he bought sitting in the massive common room. We'll need a bigger one.

I get up the stairs and smile at the big glass wall before turning down the hallway. I walk into the first door I see, but it's my office, all my boxes from my office have been brought up and set up so I have a computer on my desk and the tablet and laptop boxes sit on the desk.

So, I try the next door, another office. I try the door across the hall, but it's a bathroom. I walk to the final door and open it. Inside is a massive bedroom. The bed from Tobias' unit is sitting awkwardly against the far wall in the middle. There's a lot of space to move around, I see three doors and I open one to find a massive closet space. I walk to the other side where the other two doors are and see another closet space and an en suite bathroom. I set my bags down and walk into the bathroom to see a much bigger shower than Tobias had, a long double sink counter with a large mirror taking up the wall behind it. I can actually see into it! The toilet is basic but there's also a very nice long bathtub against the opposite wall of the shower.

I walk out of the bathroom and grab my bags. I normally sleep on the right side of the bed and Tobias sleeps on the left. So I will take the closet on the far side away from the bathroom. I walk over and start to hang up my clothes and put everything away. I notice my duffel bag and unpack that as well.

I one of my new pairs of skinny jeans with rips in them and one of my new tshirts as well as a new pair of underwear before grabbing my shower supplies and other toiletries and makeup. I take it to the bathroom and lock the door. I want to try out the new shower.

I undress and step in. It has a waterproof panel inside and I turn on the water and make it just the right temperature. I slowly take a shower enjoying the much nicer bathroom we have.

When I get out I change and put my wet hair in a bun on the top of my head before doing some light makeup again so I don't look so ghastly.

I walk out of the bathroom and smile when I see Tobias sitting on the bed. "Welcome home!"

Tobias grins at me and gets off the bed. In two or three steps he's in front of me. He leans down and kisses me. "Welcome home."

I hug him tight around his waist as he wraps his arms around my shoulders. "How was work?"

"Good, boring." He says softly as he sways us gently.

"I got you something!" I pull away and race over to my closet to grab my backpack. I pull out the keychains and walk back over with them behind my back. "I’m new to gift giving so I forgot to get it wrapped."

"That's okay." Tobias smiles at me as he sit in the bed.

I stand between his legs and present him with the keychains. "I got us matching keychains for our keys."

Tobias' smile gets wider as he takes the keychain in his hands. "Tris." His voice is gentle and just barely a whisper. When he looks up at me I see tears in his eyes and I realize he's never gotten a present just like I haven't. "Thank you."

I gently brush over his cheek and kiss him. "Of course. I wanted to celebrate us getting a unit together."

Tobias stands and picks me up in his arms before spinning us around. When he sets me down he kisses me again. "I love it. Thank you." He pulls out his keys and carefully puts the keychain on it. He helps me get my keys on the keychain.

"Let me get shoes on then we can go to dinner." I say walking over to my closet. "Hope you don't mind I chose this closet. I figured you would want the one on your side of the bed." I say over my shoulder as I pull on socks then my new high heeled combat boots.

"Are those new?" Tobias asks raising his eyebrow.

"Yeah, the girls and I went shopping after lunch. Eagle had a delay so I had an extra hour to kill. I almost ripped out Christina's tongue and Mia said I’m just like you." I walk back over and our height distance has closed some.

"Yeah? How are you just like me? I mean she wouldn't say the truth in front of Christina."

"She said I’m scary just like you."

"Ah, you have your moments." He kisses me again before taking my hand. "We actually have some time before dinner if you wanted to look a furniture."

"Yes, please!"

We walk out of the bedroom and down the hall. "So, we need office chairs, living room furniture, dining room furniture, outdoor furniture, and bedroom furniture." I list off as we go down the stairs. "Am I forgetting anything?"

"We probably need more towels, cleaning supplies, laundry supplies, and kitchen supplies. We can go shopping for food tomorrow." Tobias says as he reaches the bottom of the stairs first and grabs my waist to lift me and spins before setting me on the ground.

I grin as we walk out of the unit before my phone buzzes. I look at it and frown at the text from Max

Tris, my office. Now. We have an emergency. Bring Four.

"Sorry, Four." I say since we're in the hallway. "We have to go to Max's office. There's an emergency and they need us both."

We hurriedly walk down the stairs back to the offices and I knock on Max's door. When I walk in I see two intense looking Dauntless soldiers standing to the side.

"Tris, thank you for coming so fast." Max said as he glares at his computer. "Please shut the door."

Tobias closes it behind us as I walk further in and see Evin, Eagle, and Eric standing in front of the desk.

"What's going on, Max?" Tobias asks standing closer to me knowing Eric is in the room.

"There was an altercation out in Factionless a few days ago and Eagle just brought us the transcript of the interrogation." Eric explains and I feel Tobias tense behind me. Weird.

"Four, this is sensitive information I have to ask about." Max says looking up his jaw set and his eyes staring at Tobias. "A Factionless woman broke up the fight before soldiers could intervene and when she was questioned about the fight she wouldn't give up any information. The woman wouldn't even tell us her name. She took full responsibility for the fight, but since she wouldn't answer our questions we had to take her in for questioning."

"Okay?" I ask looking at Tobias who has his Four mask on tight not letting anything skill through.

"During interrogations baseline questions are asked to make sure the truth serum is working." Evin explains looking at me then the chairs. "Four, you should sit down."

"Was it Evelyn?" Tobias asks his voice soulless and dark.

"So you know?" Max asks like a weight has just been lifted off his shoulders.

"She contacted me after my imitation. She let me know she was alive. I don't keep regular contact with her. Don't have a reason to." Tobias says before looking at me. "But yes, I know my mother is alive."

Alive? No. I went to her funeral. I stare at Tobias then look to the other leaders.

"Let's give the two a second." Evin says and the others all leave the office.

I look at Tobias and he starts to pace and run his hand through his hair. "Tobias?"

"Tris, let me explain." He said softly as he started to chew on his thumb.

I walk over into his path and gently take his hand. "You don't have to explain right now. Just take a deep breath. Okay?"

Tobias takes a deep breath before collecting me in his arms and pressing a kiss to my forehead. "I was going to tell you when I had time and the words and a way."

"I know." I gently rub his back as I lean into his chest. "Can I ask you about her?"

"Probably easier if you do."

"Okay, so, she's alive? It's actually her?"

"Yes, but she's gone back to being Evelyn Johnson."

"Okay, and she's Factionless?"

"Yeah, guess it's better being Factionless rather than being beat by your husband."

"I guess, but how could she leave you behind?"

Tobias pulls back and scoffs out a laugh. "Been trying to ask her that for two years." He sighs and I see tears in his eyes. "She lies every time saying she didn't think he would hurt me. She knew his anger was already going to me. She did nothing. She was a coward and did nothing but run away to save herself."

"What about the baby? She was pregnant wasn't she?"

"She gave her up for adoption." Tobias sits in one of the chairs and runs a hand through his hair. "They sealed the adoption records. I've tried looking for her. My little sister is out there in the world and I don't even know if she's safe. I don't know her name, I don't know anything about her."

"I’m sorry." I stand between his legs and brush through his hair. "I can't imagine the pain you feel when you think about her."

"I just hope she's happy, you know? Not living with someone who is the same or worse than my father."

"We have to have faith in Candor that they wouldn't let just anyone adopt a child."

"I just wish I knew what faction she was in. I wish I knew the name of my little sister."

I hug him tight as I sit down on his leg and just hold him. "Maybe I can find out? I’m a leader now, I can ask my dad or ask Candor if there's a way I can look into adoption records without telling them?"

"I'd rather not risk people finding out about my father."

This shocks me. I know he wanted to hide his identity here to start over, but never let people find out about his father?

"Think about it, Tris. I would be accusing the head of the Abnegation council of horrible things. There would be truth serum interrogations. Public ones."

I nod and sigh. "I’m sorry." I kiss his head before a knock comes at the door.

I stand up and call for them to come in. The leaders and two soldiers come in, this time with a woman.

She's dressed in various colors of ragged clothing. She doesn't look like she belongs to any one faction. Her hair is short to her shoulders, but curly and dark with strands of grey. Her lips are full and her nose is hooked. Her eyes are bright blue unlike Tobias' dark blue eyes.

"Tobias." Her voice is slightly raspy as she reached for him, but he gets up and moves out of the way of her touch.

"Why is she here?" Tobias asks his Four mask in place and his voice soulless again.

"She requested to see you." Evin says sheepishly looking like she wants to run out of the room. Tobias must scare her.

"I don't want to see her. I have nothing to say to her." Tobias looks at his watch before offering me his hand. "Dinner is starting soon and we have plans after."

"Come on, Stiff." Eric speaks up before we can leave the room.

Tobias whips around faster than I can stop him. "Don't call me that."

"Eric, Four, enough. Four, Tris you're dismissed. Eric, take her to the holding cell." Max commands.

"Tobias, please!" Evelyn cries out and he looks at her like he wants to hurt her. "I have a son out there in Factionless. If I’m going to be held for months I need you to watch him!"

A son? I gently take Tobias's hand in mine again and look at him as he processes this information.

"A son?" Evin asks moving to Evelyn's side. "How old is he? Is someone watching him? Where can we find him?"

"He's just four, I don't have anyone watching him. Please, Tobias, please take him in while I’m in jail." Evelyn begs and I can see the mask starting to falter.

"No." Tobias hisses. "You already abandoned two children, what's a third? Goodnight, Evelyn." With that he pulls me out of the office and down the hall and out into the Pit.

I struggle to keep up with his strides. "Four." I say gently pulling my hand from him. "Hey." I say when he finally faces me. "Do you need to go punch something?"

He nods and starts walking again. I follow him towards the training rooms. He walks over to a still strung up punching bag and starts to punch out his feelings.

I sit on the ground near him and just watch his beautiful movements. At some point he pulls his jacket off and takes his phone, wallet, and keys out of his pockets. I take his phone and send a message to Zeke and Shauna telling them to meet us at the training room. I know they're the closest to him and will hopefully help make him feel better.

"Hey!" Zeke says as he walks into the room and I turn and wave before looking at Tobias who doesn't stop. "Geez, Four. You good?"

"Not really." Tobias grunts out as Shauna takes a seat next to me.

"Need to spar?" Zeke offers pulling off his jacket and taking his things out of his pocket.

"Yeah." Tobias and Zeke go to the mat so Shauna and I move to sit on the edge.

They start sparing throwing punches and kicks at each other. They honestly are so evenly matched they look like they're just dancing together. Tobias must be distracted by his thoughts because Zeke fakes him out and punches him in the jaw.

Tobias falls to the ground and gets up a little calling the fight. "Thanks."

Zeke helps him up and smiles. "Anytime! I'll always be down to rough you up." Zeke chuckles before getting serious. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No. Let's just go get dinner." Tobias comes over and I hand him his things before he helps me up to my feet. "Thank you." He kisses my head before turning to Zeke and Shauna. "How did you guys even know to come here?"

"Tris texted us off your phone saying you probably needed us." Shauna says before she pulls him into a hug. "We're always here for you. It's what best friends are for."

Tobias smiles at me and kisses my forehead again before we all start walking out to the cafeteria again. "Thank you for calling them."

"Of course." I lean into his side with a heavy sigh. I want him to talk to me but I know he won't, not until he's ready.

Chapter Text

Chapter Five:

When we make it to the cafeteria it's lively as usual. We get to our table with all our friends and sit down. I’m glad they're all talking about picking jobs instead of the delay or where Shauna, Zeke, Tobias, and I were. I slowly eat as I listen to my friends talk about their jobs.

"I think I'm going to end up in the control room because of the order of picking. But I'm secretly hoping for ambassador since my first pick was leader." Will says as he smiles at me then at Christina. "What are you picking?"

"I already said it last time. I’m going to scare the daylights out of initiates. But I also want to be a hairstylist during the rest of the year. It seems fun!" She says before turning to me. "What - oh nevermind. You already have a job. How is it going?"

"Pretty good. Today was my first day and it was pretty normal from what I can tell. Just going over the computer and then my schedule of meetings. I’m basically a glorified ambassador at the moment." I say before smiling down at my food. "But I do get to see my dad because I am taking the Dauntless chair on the council."

"That's exciting! I didn't see him during Visiting Day. But I’m glad your mom came." Christina says which catches a lot of attention from the table.

"Wait Tris, your mom came here on Visiting Day?" Mia asks and I nod.

"Yeah, I found out later that day that she was Dauntless born." I say causing Tobias to look up at me. "Which is pretty cool, but she came and met Christina and Will's family. Well, his sister. I almost punched Cara in the face."

Will chuckles and nods. "You probably should have. She deserved it for talking to your mom like that. I’m really sorry."

"You were against the punching, Will." I smile at him and he shrugs.

"Yeah, but then those allegations about your dad were published and Molly decided to read them in the dorms." Will gives me another apologetic look.

"When was this?" Tobias asks, his first words muttered since we sat down.

I smile at him and gently rest my hand on his knee. "Same night as your flirt with death." I say causing his friends to ooh and ahh.

"Tell us the story again, Tris!" Zeke begs and I roll my eyes.

"No. You all had your fun last night." I cross my arms and raise an eyebrow at him.

Zeke pouts and whines like a toddler. "Please! I love hearing about how my sweet little number boy flirted with you!"

"Then ask Shauna." I roll my eyes hoping it would get him to stop, but he turns to Shauna and grins.

"Sunshine!" He beams batting his eyes at her. "You love me right?"

"Questioning my decision every day." She laughs before looking at Tobias. "But I am not embarrassing Four two nights in a row. If you want to embarrass him then plan the Candor or Dauntless party."

Before I can ask what that is, Max whistles from the balcony of the cafeteria catching everyone's attention. Time to see my friends choose their jobs! Best timing.

"Initiates, rise!" He commands and we all stand up. "Tonight you choose your jobs and become rightful members of Dauntless. Normally we would start with our number one initiate tonight, Tris." He gestures to me and everyone turns their eyes to me. I feel my face turn hot. "But, she's already accepted the job of being our fifth and final leader."

Everyone erupts into cheers and claps. I sit down when the claps silence and look at Tobias. "I’m sorry." I whisper to him but he just smiles at me.

"You did look good." He whispers into my ear and I pull away from him my face red hot. "Payback." He whispers to me with a smile.

I glare at him playfully before Max calls Uriah up to the balcony.

"Ambassador!" Max announces before Uriah comes back to the table.

"Sorry, Will. I just couldn't chance Peter getting the job." Uriah says holding out his hand.

"It's ok. I’m glad it's you and not him." Will says, shaking Uriah's hand.

Lynn goes up next and chose to be a fighter for entertainment and be a tattoo artist on the side. Marlene goes next and chooses to be a nurse. Peter is next and he saunters up the stairs. He willingly chooses to guard the fences. Odd. Very odd. What is he playing at?

Will goes next and chooses to be in the control room and Christina gets to work in the salon and train initiates next year. If we're even here. The last three I don't pay attention to.

"We would love to stay and chat." I say before the conversation and refocus on Tobias and I. "But we have to go shopping for furniture for our new unit. Bye!" I pull Tobias with me out of the cafeteria really not wanting to listen to them any longer.

"How did we both get stuck with very loud best friends?" Tobias asks as we walk together towards the furniture store.

"I think they saw us and decided they were going to be our friends and we didn't really get a choice." I giggle and he smiles at me.

"Quite possibly what happened. I mean I really met Zeke and Shauna at a game of Dare." He says and I raise an eyebrow. "It's a game where one person has a flask. They tell someone to do something the doer takes a gulp of alcohol and does the thing. It's a fun game from what I remember. A big blur of everyone doing a bunch of crazy shit. Then I was last to go. I got dared to get my first tattoo."

"The one on your side? Or did you go big and get your back?" I ask slightly teasing him as I wrap my arm around his waist.

"The one on my side. The one on my back is private." Tobias says dropping a kiss to my head. "Zeke tried to talk me into tattooing my ass, but I wanted a reminder of the pain I had growing up. There were never really scars and bruises would fade. But he always loved to kick one side." He sighs and I rest my hand against his side where I know the tattoo is. "So I got it there proving to everyone I was Dauntless and giving me a permanent reminder of what I was put through."

"What you survived." I smile up at him and he smiles back to me. "Please tell me Zeke isn't going to drag us into a game of Dare."

"I think he's forgotten it exists for the moment." Tobias says as we walk into the furniture store. "But they will be demanding a Candor or Dauntless game soon. They had one after our initiation and have been planning Uri's ever since."

"I was going to ask earlier, but what in the world is Candor or Dauntless?" I ask as we start to browse around. "And what room should we start with?"

"Probably the bedroom then work our way down?" Tobias asks and I nod. He starts to guide me towards the bedroom furniture as he starts to explain. "Candor or Dauntless is like Dare. I know there will be alcohol, but it's not mandatory like with Dare. Whoever starts the game picks someone then asks Candor or Dauntless. If the doer chooses Dauntless then it's just like Dare they get told to do something, but it's usually within the room or within Dauntless. If the doer chooses Candor they are asked a question and have to answer truthfully. The main different is you can say no to any dare or questions, but you have to take off an item of clothing and shoes and socks don't count. So, wear layers when they inevitably ask us to play."

I nod before looking at all the bed frames. There's so many. There's simple like the one he has now, elegant one's covered in fabric, canopy, round, elegantly carved wood. But a nice dark cherry red bed frame catches my eye. It has a bookcase at the foot of the bed and the backboard has a bookcase built on the sides.

"Four." I pull him over and gently run my hand over the dark red wood. "What do you think?"

"It's perfect." He grins pulling out his phone to put a note in of the item number.

"Do you think we still need nightstands?" I ask and Tobias inspects the bed frame. He carefully grabs what looks like a drawer handle and pulls it out and it's a built in nightstand.

"We'll need to get different lamps, but for any time we need to have a glass of water at night. Our alarm clock can take the shelf in the middle." He carefully pushes the nightstand back in place.

"It's perfect." I smile and we pick out a new luxurious mattress to go with it. His old mattress was slightly uncomfortable and too hard. But now we have a soft bed I could sink into.

We pick out a few floor lamps, a rug, new sheets, and a matching bookshelf. We move on to our offices and pick out a new desk for him since my office came with a desk and his is his old one. I get a chair similar to the one in my actual office because that chair is just so comfortable. Once he picks his chair we move to the outside furniture.

We pick out a few black chairs, a very soft weather proof round black couch, a large table, and a cute fireplace. As we continue we look at dining room furniture and pick a gorgeous dark red wood dining set similar to our bed. It's large enough to have all our friends over and more. Then we find the most gorgeous red and black u-shaped couch that has an ottoman that can fit in the hole to make it a rectangle. We get end tables since we don't need a coffee table. We even pick out a television and entertainment center.

We finish up by buying other miscellaneous things like blankets, pillows, rugs, and kitchen utensils. By the time we finish and pay I am exhausted. We head home and I sigh as we walk into our unit.

Today has been perfect. I started my new job, met all of Tobias' friends, my friends got their permanent jobs, and life couldn't be better. Well, it could have been. If Evelyn didn't make a big fuss about her son then I would chalk this up as the best day ever.

I step out of the shower and pull on my pajamas, but when I enter our room Tobias isn't there. I exit our room and go to head downstairs when I see him outside leaning against the balcony. I walk out and gently wrap my arms around his waist.

"I’m here, if you ever want to talk about it." I whisper kissing his shoulder. "Take your time and just know that no matter what, you are loved."

I feel his body shake as I know he's crying. I just hug his back and gently press a kiss against where his Dauntless tattoo is in the center of his back.

I don't know how long he cried for, but I never release him from my hold. I only loosen it when he turns in my arms to hug me.

"I know it's probably too early." He whispers his lips gently pressing kisses to my head. "But I love you. Thank you for giving me the time to process this. I’m not ready to speak about it, but knowing you're here makes it an actual possibility that I might talk about it."

I look up at him and pull him into a sweet kiss. "I love you, Tobias. You take your time. What she threw at you was a lot."

Tobias sighs as he pulls away from me and starts to pace and pick at his thumb. "I just... god she had another child. A son. A son she kept."

I can hear his heart breaking from where I stand. I can't imagine the pain he feels knowing she left him with an abusive father only to keep a child.

"She is subjecting that boy to a live of homelessness. The same shit she said she was protecting me from by leaving me with Marcus. So she lied, again. Surprise surprise my mother is a lying bitch." Tobias groans and sinks down so his back is against the balcony railing and he's seated on the floor. "I don't get it. Why can't she just say that she never loved me?"

I quickly kneel next to him and brush through his hair. "Tobias, I won't make excuses and I won't say that I know her. I don't. I’m not even sure what I can say. But I hope that she loved you. I hope there are some good memories that prove that she did love you. I can't imagine your pain, but I’m here for you to lean on."

Tobias takes a deep breath and closes his eyes. "A good memory?" He asks before frowning as he racks his brain before he smiles. "She gave me a blue glass statue one time. I asked her what it did and she said it didn't do anything but be beautiful. And then I started to collect bits and bobs that I found beautiful." Then his smile drops and he sighs. "I wanted one last defiance to my father and I left the blue statue on my desk for him to see. I’m sure it's destroyed."

"But the memory isn't." I gently press my hand to his heart. "Your mother wanted to give you more than the Abnegation life said she could. She helped you learn what beauty was and that not everything has to have a purpose."

Tobias smiles at me and pulls me into a kiss. "What are they going to do to the little boy?"

I move to sit criss cross instead of on my knees and look out through the glass railing. "She's going to be in jail for months it sounds like. I know my dad had talked about Factionless children being put in the foster care system to give them the chance to go to school and then be able to participate in the choosing ceremony, but I don't think it has been passed yet. But I know if Factionless children don't have a guardian to watch them they're put in the system and adopted out."

"And he will be abandoned just like me." Tobias sighs and I look at him.

"Does he have to be?" I gently grab his hand and smile at him. "Yes, I am sixteen and you're eighteen and we're young and newly together, but I can't think of a better person to be able to know what he's going through than you."

"If we take him in, I’m not sure I'll be able to give him back." Tobias warns me. "And where would he sleep? We purposefully didn't pick a unit with multiple bedrooms."

"Tobias, I am with you and beside you no matter what. Okay? If we need to fight for custody then I’m right there with you fighting." I kiss his cheek. "We have the second office. We can just make my office our office and then that room be his bedroom."

"Let me think about it. Okay? Give me a few days. I'll let you know how I feel." Tobias yawns and stands up before offering me his hand. "Let's get to bed. It's been a long day for you."

I stand and follow him into our unit. We climb into bed and I immediately curl into his side and drape my arm across his chest. "I love you, Tobias Eaton."

"I love you, Tris."

Chapter Text

Chapter Six:

I walk into the conference room Eagle told me to meet at after lunch. Today has been absolutely boring. I started out with reviewing the minutes from the council meetings and any notes the other leaders took. Tomorrow is my first day being on the council, but I've been told it's going to be going over initiation results and then we'll break off to a separate meeting for the new ambassador assignments.

When I walk into the room the only face I recognize is Uriah's and I immediately walk over to him and punch his arm. "Hey, how's your day been?" I ask only for an older person sitting next to him to scoff.

"Little girl, why are you here?" The man asks and I look at him my face getting red.

"Dude, shut up. Don't talk to Tris like that." Uri defends me and the older man laughs.

"Oh you find it funny to disrespect your leader?" I ask walking over to his chair.  "Must be so funny to be so cocky and risk your position of ambassador." I threaten before leaning closer to him. "Talk to me like that again and you will be on fence duty. Do you understand?"

The man laughs again as the door opens and Eagle walks in. I look up at him and cross my arms.

"Eagle, what is the least desirable faction for the ambassadors to go to?" I ask walking over to him.

"Amity, why?" Eagle asks looking at the man who is still laughing. "You find something funny Noose?"

"Yeah, this little girl claiming she's a leader!" The man laughs and I look at Eagle.

"Oh? This "little girl"," Eagle puts it in air quotes, "who got first in initiation? This "little girl" who has the second lowest number of fears? This "little girl" who is dating Four? You find her funny?"

Noose sobers up the moment Tobias' name is dropped. "I didn't, I mean, no! No of course not!"

"Get out." Eagle says pointing to the door. "You're going to be transferred to fence duty. Anyone else want to disrespect a leader of this faction?" He turns to me and sighs. "You don't  happen to know if anyone else from your initiation class wants an ambassador job, do you?"

I smile and nod. "I do. Will Drake, he had to choose control room, but he really wanted to be an ambassador and I think he would be a perfect fit."

"Call Four and have Will sent here asap." Eagle says before walking to the podium.

I step out of the room and text Tobias to send Will to the conference room saying he's gotten a promotion. I head back in and stand next to Eagle.

"Perfect timing, ambassadors, this is Tris as I mentioned earlier. She got first in this year's initiation. Don't fuck around with her or you'll find out just like Noose just did." Eagle says before letting me take over.

"I’m going to be the leader on the council as well as attending every ambassador meeting with you all. I saw that we had assigned Factions for you, but they have not been changed ever. So we will be changing your Faction assignments after I talk to each of you to see where you might be suited best. And they may be your same Faction it may not be." I explain before the door opens. I smile at Will and point to the empty seat. "Please take a seat Will, I'll make sure you get caught up later."

"Yes, Tris." Will scurries around the table and takes a seat next to Uriah. It will definitely pay to have these two as ambassadors for getting ahead of whatever agenda the other leaders have.

"Does anyone have any questions before we get started?" I ask and no one speaks up. "Good, can someone pair with Will and catch him up on anything he needs to know while I pull the first two ambassadors?"

Someone moves over to Uriah and Will as Eagle and I pull two ambassadors into the small meeting room attached.

"I was looking over your files." I say pulling out the matching files. "Luz and Ambrose. It looks like you two have been assigned to Candor previously. What can you tell me about the meetings, concerns, and how you think your positions are going."

"The meetings are often about trials. The main concern we are having with Candor is they are taking forever to do interrogations and trials. We have innocent Dauntless members sitting in holding cells and then when they are proven innocent they come back and have missing wages since they missed work." Luz explains as she picks at a few pieces of lint on her pants.

"We've always had a transactional relationship with Candor. They do interrogations and trials. Then we carry out the punishment." Ambrose picks at his nails. "As for our position we know we aren't liked by Candor. They don't like anyone. They don't like being called slow and stupid."

I nod and pull out the filed complaints on the two from the Candor leaders. "These are complaints we received about your work as ambassadors. Obviously you two are fed up with how the relationship is going. To avoid any more complaints I will be changing you two out of Candor. I'll ask everyone their preferred Faction to go to then look at your work to see if that is where you fit. So, where do you think you could do the best work?"

"I honestly think I would do well in Amity." Luz says sitting up a bit finally paying attention. "They're always looking for softer people to work with and I believe I could provide them with the assurance of safety as an ambassador as well as the friendliness they desire."

"Noted, thank you. Ambrose?" I look at him and he sighs.

"I don't know. Don't really care. Wherever you want to put me just not Candor or Amity. And not with the Stiffs." He says before sitting up taller. "No offense."

"I'd like for you to be an ambassador who runs the Dauntless meetings. You obviously seem to know a lot about what we need and I think we would benefit from that. How does that sound?" I ask writing on my tablet my thoughts.

"Honestly? Pretty good. I've always wanted to be a bigger part of making Dauntless better for the members. This will allow me to do so. Thank you, Tris."

The two leave and send in the next two, Quinn and Vega.

"You two were originally assigned to Erudite?" I ask as I look at their files. The main concerns are about our infirmary equipment not being up to date but they tend to ignore and ask about the fear simulation results. Weird. These two have an insane amount of complaints and I frown. "They don't seem to like you."

"No, they don't." Quinn sighs as she runs a hand through her hair. "They think we're stupid and talk down to us and when we bite back they complain."

"So obviously, Erudite is not a good place for you. I’m asking everyone where they think their skills would be most well suited for." I say looking at them.

"I think I would be good with Abnegation. I have no distain for them and I could probably help them with their concerns of over policing of the Factionless." Quinn says happily. Good to know I will be giving a good person to my mother.

"Vega?" I don't want to say anything that will cause Eagle to suspect me but I’m really glad Quinn is going to Abnegation.

"I might be good with Candor? I know the trials and interrogations are the main concerns on our side. I was born in Candor so I think I could get them to understand our side of things." Vega explains and I nod.

"Definitely a good plan to assign you there then." I smile and jot down notes as they get up and leave before sending in the next two Uriah and Will.

"Since you two haven't been assigned to factions I'll just ask where you think you might be able to do the best work." I explain as I smile at my closest friends.

"My sister is an ambassador for Erudite and I think I might be able to reason with her on our concerns for the infirmary equipment. My parents are doctors as well so I've grown up listening to them and I know a lot about the medical field." Will explains his face flushing a little.

I nod and smile. "Perfect, I know you'll fight to get that infirmary up to date." I turn to Uriah who is flushed now.

"I really think Amity or Abnegation. I’m not as intense as most Dauntless members so I think they would be okay working with me. So you can choose where I go." Uri explains fiddling with his jacket.

"I'll let you know after I’m done which Faction I choose, okay?" They nod and leave. I assign the last four after meeting with them before Eagle and I join the ambassadors in the main conference room.

"Alright!" I shout to get everyone's attention as they were talking amongst themselves. "The new ambassador assignments are as followed. For Dauntless we have Jenson and Ambrose. For Amity we have Luz and Marie. For Candor we have Vega and Buck. For Erudite we have Will and Verily. And for Abnegation we have Uriah and Quinn." I read off my tablet. "We are about to break for the day. For tomorrow we will be leaving the compound by train at 7am to arrive at the Hub by 7:30. The meeting for ambassadors is not until 9:30. I will have the concerns of each faction printed out for each of you and you will be working with your partners on a new approach to get what we need. I will not tolerate any horseplay or recklessness in front of the other factions. I will not tolerate ripped clothing. I want them to take us seriously. Am I understood?"

The ambassadors all say "yes Tris" and I dismiss them. I pack up my backpack knowing I need to swing by my office before dinner to start printing them off.

"Tris, good work." Eagle praises as he stands at the door waiting for me. "I think the new assignments will help us in more ways than you think."

God I hope I didn't make a bad decision. I smile and nod. "I hope so. You can go to dinner. I have some more work to do in my office."

The man leaves and I head back to my office texting Tobias that I will most likely be late to dinner due to needing to do some more work in my office.

When I get in my office I grab my tablet and open it while I pull up reports on my computer. Reports of how long some on the Dauntless members have been in holding awaiting trial, some on how old our infirmary equipment is, some on the amount of space Amity is not using for planting, some on incidents that happen out in Factionless where there is no policing, and also the reports from initiation.

I then look at the devious council minutes again and print off the last meeting so I can study it. They had gone through the aptitude results and hypothesized on how many transfers there would be. I now understand why they made false claims about my father as Tobias and I both got Abnegation on our tests but defected to Dauntless.

I jump when I hear a knock at my door and I get up to answer it. "Four?" I ask opening the door to let him in. "I’m almost done I promise. Then we can go to dinner."

"Tris, you missed dinner." Tobias says as he plops down on the sofa.

I look at the clock and rub my forehead. I did miss dinner. Damn. "I'll finish up. Any place we can go to get food? Have you eaten? I hope you've eaten."

"I've eaten, and I went grocery shopping and I can make you dinner when we get home." Tobias sits forward on the couch. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah, I just got caught up making copies for tomorrow and going over the last council meeting minutes." I say as I start to shut down my computer and put my copies in folders with the ambassador's names on them. I put the minutes in my own folder before packing up my backpack. "Found out why they decided to publish things about my dad."

"Oh? And why did they feel the need to spread rumors about him?" Tobias asks standing to take my backpack for me. "I remember him always being so kind. He even came over repeatedly after my mom left to make sure we had food."

"I didn't know that." I say as we leave my office and I lock it. "Well, rumors about your dad were already flying around and we both scored Abnegation then chose Dauntless. The two theories Jeanine had were that either we knew each other and fell in love then you transferred and I followed craving freedom. Or my dad is like yours."

Tobias nods as he listens and we walk into our unit. I see our new furniture in our unit and I can't help but grin. It looks wonderful. It finally feels like our unit.

"You like?" Tobias asks as he carefully pulls my laptop and tablet out so he can plug them in to charge.

"It feels like home." I grin before my stomach rumbles loudly. "I think I need some food."

"Come on." Tobias chuckles as we walk into the kitchen. "How about spaghetti?"

"Spaghetti? I don't know what that is." I say as I grab a water bottle from our fridge.

"Oh you will learn." Tobias smiles before gently picking me up and setting me on the counter. "You just sit here and I will make us dinner."

"So you didn't eat!" I stare at him and his ears flush. "Tobias!"

"Well you said you would be working late and you took one of my people so I was just catching up on work." Tobias explains as he grabs a bowl, meat, breadcrumbs, and spices.

"I’m sorry, we had an ambassador who decided to laugh at me today." I explain as I watch him. "I was just going to assign him to Amity, but Eagle tossed him out to the fence."

"Eagle is a pretty good leader. Probably the only one who might be on our side. But I am glad we now have two ambassadors we know. What factions are they going to?"

"Uri is going to Abnegation and I’m going to introduce him to my mom tomorrow and hopefully things go well with him being there. And then Will is going to Erudite."

"We should probably inform those two about the serum we found."

"Yeah?"

"Well, Uri is Divergent. I’m guessing he asked to be in Abnegation or Amity?"

"How did you know?"

"Uri got Dauntless and Abnegation on his test."

"Oh." I nod at that information. "Probably why we're good friends then."

"Probably. But why is Will going to Erudite?"

"His sister is an ambassador and our infirmary needs new equipment and his parents are doctors. So if anyone can get us new equipment it's him."

"Makes sense. Plus if he's pushy on it he can get the attention off the serum."

I nod and we fall into a lovely silence while Tobias continues to make spaghetti. I eventually get off the counter and head upstairs to take a shower and get out of my work clothes.

When I come down Tobias has two plates set at the dining table with glasses of juice. I smile and kiss him as we sit down and start to eat. Tomorrow is going to wear me out.

Chapter Text

Chapter Seven:

I wake up to the alarm going off and I quickly shut it off so it doesn't disturb Tobias. I set it for  4am so I could get up and do a work out before the council meeting. If I have to face Marcus Eaton I do not want to do it with pent up energy. That will end in a fight. I slip out of bed hoping Tobias is still asleep, but I feel his hand grab mine.

"What are you doing up early?" Tobias asks his voice gruff form sleep.

"Was going to go work out. Get some rest, baby." I lean over the bed to kiss him.

"I’m coming with you." Tobias says rolling out of bed as well.

"Tobias, you need rest." I huff hoping he will go back to bed.

"I need to spend time with you because I miss you." Tobias wraps his arms around me and kisses my forehead. "Plus I need to get back in the habit of doing a morning workout."

"I’m only doing it so I’m too tired to fight with Marcus today." I mumble as I wrap my arms around his neck. "Don't need me getting kicked out just a few days into me being a leader."

"No, that would be bad. Go get dressed and we'll go work out." Tobias says gently kissing me one last time before turning me around and gently pushing me towards my closet.

I walk into the walk-in closet and close the door behind me. I change into a pair of biker shorts and pull on my sports bra and a cropped tight fit tank top. When I look in the mirror I see Tris, leader of Dauntless. But I still somehow see Beatrice. I huff a little and grab my sneakers and socks before walking out of my closet and to the bed. I pull on my socks and sneakers before grabbing a hair tie to tie up my hair in a high ponytail.

"Ready?" Tobias asks from the doorway and I nod as I join his side.

We walk to the gym, but stop by the cafeteria to grab water and muffins. We nibble on the muffins as we walk in silence together. When we get to the Dauntless member gym and walk in I see various different machines and weights.

"Want to just do my workout and see how you like it?" Tobias asks and I nod not really having a plan of what I was going to do.

Tobias takes us over to the treadmills and we start off with a 10 minute warm up jog. He grabs two yoga mats and sets them out before we start on an ab work out. When we finish all the reps of the ab exercises we roll over into a plank. My abs are on fire. I get this is why his abs are amazing, but Jesus I want to die.

After abs we stretch and do a bit of yoga. Then Tobias leads us into burpees to get our hearts pumping again. He walks is over to weights and we do all kinds of lifts until I fear my arms cannot hold any more weight. We do a few leg exercises before hopping back on the treadmill to run for 10 miles. When we finish we go back to the yoga mats and Tobias and I do some more yoga to stretch and relax and cool down.

I flip on my back at the end and huff. "How often do you do that?" I ask as he grabs us more water.

"Every day. Sometimes twice a day." Tobias muses as he sits next to me. "Was that too much?"

"Yeah, I feel like a limp noodle." I laugh before gulping down water. "At least I will definitely be too tired to cause any fights."

"Thankfully." Tobias chuckles before looking at his watch. "We better head back so you can shower and head out."

I hold my arms up for him when he stands over me and he laughs. "Carry me?"

Tobias grabs my hands and pulls me up off the ground on to my feet before sweeping me off of them. "Always." He whispers against my temple as he starts to walk out of the gym and back home.

"Have you thought more about the situation?" I ask as I gently run my hand through the hair at the back of his head. It's probably best we make a decision about his little brother sooner rather than later.

"I'd like to meet him. Have you meet him before we make a decision." Tobias says as he sets me down at our door and opens our unit. "I don't doubt he's just like every other four year old, but I'd still like to meet him first. See if he even likes us before we take him in."

I nod as we walk up the stairs to our room. "I can talk to Max today about setting up a meeting." I give Tobias a kiss before walking to my closet to grab an outfit for today.

I hop in the shower trying to get everything in line for today's meetings, but I can't stifle my excitement of being able to see at least my dad today. I get out of the shower and dry off before pulling on my underwear and bra. I look in the mirror and smile at the muscle I've gained from initiation and I know if I keep doing Tobias' workout I'll gain more. I pull on my maroon turtleneck and then a pair of black formal pants that are slim cut. I tuck in my turtle neck then look at my outfit. I’m covered and modest, but not with the fitted outfit I feel more Dauntless. I smile and do a bit of makeup just to make my eyes pop, make my face less ghastly, and my lips less pale.

I pull out the hairdryer and carefully dry my hair before I start to braid it back away from my face. When I reach the top of my head I pull all my hair up into a ponytail. even with the braid and the high ponytail my hair still reaches to the middle of my back. I definitely need to do something with it.

I walk out of the bathroom and smile at Tobias sitting on the bed freshly showered. He probably used our downstairs shower. "Hey, what do you think?" I do a little spin before stepping between his legs.

"You look beautiful." Tobias smiles at me before pulling me down into a kiss. "Very modest of you to wear a turtleneck."

I flush and brush through his wet hair. "I’m seeing my dad today for the first time since the choosing ceremony. I didn't want to disrespect him."

"You could never. Andrew Prior loves his daughter more than anything in the world." Tobias says and I raise my eyebrow. "I may or may not have watched you back then too. Used to be jealous of your relationship with your dad. He always gave you a kiss on the head when he could."

I smile at the memories Tobias pulls into my head at that. He did always give me a kiss goodbye on the head. I kiss Tobias before going to my closet to grab my shoes. I pull on my combat boot heels and make sure the ankle of my pants are tucked in. I grab my black coat before walking out. I look at the clock and smile. I still have time for breakfast.

"Would you like to go to breakfast with me?" I offer holding out my hand to Tobias.

"I would." Tobias grins at me and I feel my knees turn to jelly.

We walk downstairs and I grab my laptop and tablet before putting them in my backpack. I'll fill up my water bottle in the cafeteria. I pull on my backpack and we head out then to the cafeteria.

We sit at our usual table and I smile as some of our friends are here. "Hey guys."

"Morning." Will yawns before drinking his coffee. "Tris, respectfully, why are you having the ambassadors come with you and the leaders when we don't have to be there for two hours?"

I sip my juice and smile. "The other ambassadors will be there. It will give you time to mingle and also look over all the material I printed for you all last night."

Will nods and go back to eating his breakfast satisfied with my answer.

"Looking good Tris!" I hear and look up to see Christina walking over. "Very professional. I was surprised when Will asked me to go shopping with him, but I’m so glad he gets to be an ambassador!"

"I am too." I grin before looking at my watch. "We should go." I say before getting up to fill up my water bottle with ice and water. I head back to the table and pull my backpack on before gently brushing hand over Tobias' back. "I'll talk to Max and let you know what he says."

"Thank you." Tobias leans up and pulls me down into a kiss. "Have a good day."

"You too." I lean down further and kiss his cheek. "I love you." I whisper and he tries to smother his smile.

"I love you." He whispers back before letting me go.

I walk with Uriah and Will out to the platform where the train will pass back. "I'll give you all your folders when we reach the hub." I explain to the ambassadors as we wait for the train. Everyone is here on time and now we're just waiting.

"Tris!" I look over my shoulder to Max as he walks over. "Eagle said you lead the ambassadors well yesterday. I’m glad to see me made a good decision with you. Apologies for Noose he's an older member and doesn't like transfers."

I shrug and hold my backpack straps. "He can be angry all he wants. Doesn't change that I’m a leader and I will have respect from our members especially our ambassadors."

"Very well said. You'll do well today." Max says and I smile at him.

"Can I ask you for a favor?" I nod my head away from the crowd of ambassadors and we walk over to have some privacy. "Four and I have talked a little. We'd like to meet Evelyn's son to see if he would even like us before we make any decision on taking him in. Would that be possible?"

"It would be. I'll talk to the foster parents and see what we can do." Max says before we hear the train coming. Max turns to the crowd. "Alright! The moment we get on the train is the moment work starts. I do not want any arguments or fighting today!" He shouts over the train.

We all start running before hopping on the train. When I land I move to the door and hold on to the handle before staring out of the train. It's a colder day as we get closer to winter. The sky is grey and I wouldn't be shocked if it started to snow today.

The train ride if lively as the ambassadors and leaders all talk amongst themselves. I don't really want to join in the conversation. I get to show my dad that my choice almost a month ago was the right choice. I chose the faction where I belong the most and I’m the happiest I've ever felt.

When we reach the Hub we jump off and I catch myself by running a few steps before I slow to a walk. Before we walk in I turn to the ambassadors.

"Alright! I have folders for each of you with information on the faction you will be representing us to. For those of who are were assigned to Dauntless you have all the information they have provided us in the past with their concerns. I want you working with your partner on a plan." I announce as I pull my backpack off and start to hand off the folders. "If you have any questions write them down and we can look over them together after the meetings."

We send the ambassadors off to a conference room to work while the leaders and I walk to the elevator to ride up to the top. The same room where we had the choosing ceremony is the same room used for council meetings.

I start to feel jittery when we reach the top. I don't know how my dad will react. I don't know what he will say. I’m nervous.

"You okay?" Evin asks her hand gently resting on my shoulder.

"Yeah, just nervous to see my dad. He wasn't happy when I transferred. Didn't come to Visiting Day." I say as we walk out and into the massive room.

Max instructs us to set out bags down at our chairs then stand at the door so we can greet the other leaders as they enter since we're the first faction in the room.

I stand at the end and do my best to stand tall and proud. I don't need any other leaders, especially Jeanine, questioning me.

Candor is the first faction to arrive after us. They happily greet Max before going down the line of Dauntless leaders to greet them.

"Jack Kang." The talk Asian man says as he offers me his hand.

"Tris, nice to meet you." I shake his hand and smile before he leaves me. I meet the other four leaders of Candor after him, Freya, Nelson, Nicholas, and Laura.

"Beatrice." Jeanine smiles as she shakes my hand. "What a lovely surprise to see you've flourished in Dauntless."

"It's just Tris, now." I smile as I shake her hand. "And you'll be pleased to hear I got first out of the successful initiates."

"That is good to hear. I’m glad they added a good mind to their leadership. I look forward to talking to you more." She walks off and I greet the other leaders, Herman, Justin, Hellen. Wait that's only three.

I look down the line to see the fifth leader caught up talking to Eric. "Caleb?"

His head shoots up and he smiles at me. He shakes Evin's hand quickly before pulling me into a hug. "Beatrice!"

"It's just Tris." I say pulling back from him. "You're a leader too?"

"Yeah, I got the highest tests scores they've ever seen second to Jeanine." Caleb explains before pulling me into another hug. "What about you?"

"Second lowest number of fears." Evin cuts in. "You should sit down."

"Right, of course." Caleb pulls back and heads to greet Candor.

We can hear Amity before we see them. They're singing and laughing as they come in. Johanna is the main representative I think. Then there's Summed, Autumn, Winter, and April.

Lastly Abnegation walks in silently bowing them heads as they greet us.

"Beatrice." Marcus smiles and I shake his hand.

"Marcus, how are you?" I need to be nice. I need to be nice. I'm not supposed to know anything about him.

"I've been well. How are you?" Marcus asks and I nod.

"I've been well." He walks off and I happily greet Jonah who was a well loved family friends, Ethan Black who was Susan and Robert's father. I turn and see both my mother and father greeting.

"Beatrice." My mother pulls me into a hug when she reaches me.

"Mom." I close my eyes as I sink into her. "When did you get on the council of leaders?"

"After initiation, we lost Faye to a heart attack. Her family is still grieving. The Faction nominated me and when put to a vote-"

"She won in a landslide." My father finishes as he smiles at me. "Hello Beatrice."

"Hi dad." Mom releases me from her arms and he pulls me in. "I've missed you."

"I missed you too." He pulls back and kisses my forehead. "I've heard good things about your initiation and your skills."

I nod lost for words still not used to talking to my parents as colleagues.

"She ranked first out of her class." Evin gushes. "She's now going to be the one taking the council chair and handling ambassadors."

"Oh Beatrice." Mom pulls me into another hug.

"We should sit." I say when I pull back. "And you should greet Erudite." I point to Caleb who is talking adamantly with his fellow leaders.

My parents walk off and I see them pull Caleb into a hug as I walk to my chair. My whole family is here and safe.

"That must have been a good surprise." Eagle says nodding in the direction of my family.

"Yeah." I pull out my folder and tablet.  "I just thought I would see my dad and maybe my mom. But seeing my brother was really nice."

"Are you two twins?" Evin asks and I shake my head.

"No, he's barely ten months older than me." I explain as I jot down every leader's name before I can forget them.

"Ten months? That's really close." Eagle says and I shrug.

"Yeah..." I trail off staring at my brother then to my parents. It doesn't make sense. He would be 17 by the choosing ceremony if I was born in April and the ceremony is in October.

"Everyone!" Marcus' voice booms in the room and it startled me out of my thoughts. "Thank you for coming to the council meeting."

I look up at Marcus and take a deep breath. I try to not to let the monster I saw in Tobias' fear landscape take over my imagination while I look at the real man in front of me. Marcus goes into what our Factions stand for and then has the minutes read from the previous council meeting.

"Now, if there are new leaders please stand. Come to the stage. We will introduce you formally for minute keeping." One from each Faction, including myself, get up and walk to the stage. "Introduce your name, your Faction, and what your main role will be as a leader."

Marcus gestures to me and I step forward out of the line of new leaders. "I’m Tris Prior. I’m from Dauntless. As a leader of Dauntless I will be taking over the duty of overseeing the Dauntless ambassadors and the meetings as well as taking the Dauntless chair on the council." I step back in line and Caleb steps forward.

"I am Caleb Prior from Erudite. As a leader I will be overseeing the production of serums and medication. I will be taking the Erudite chair on the council." Caleb says before coming back in line and smiling at me. Good he looked into the serum and he's going to be in charge.

"Hello everyone, I am Natalie Prior and I represent Abnegation. I will be over watching the Abnegation ambassadors and ambassador meetings." My mom says shooting me a smile as well.

"Hello! I’m Summer!" Summer waves excitedly. "I’m going to be the new representative of Amity for over looking ambassadors!"

"I’m Nicholas for Candor and I will be training to handle truth serum interrogations and trials." I'll be working closely with Nicholas.

"Thank you." Marcus dismisses us back to our seats so he can get started.

Chapter Text

Chapter Eight:

The council meeting was a long meeting going over the results of each initiation. Of course, Dauntless was called ruthless for having cuts and only accepting 10 new members out of the original 20 initiates we had. That lead to an argument where Eric was nearly tossed out of the meeting. Eventually it settled back down and the meeting finished by scheduling the next council meeting of just council members.

We have a bit of a recess before the ambassador's meeting so I head back down to the conference room I had my ambassadors go in to. They're all talking about various different Faction issues.

"How's it going?" I ask setting my backpack down so I can pull out my water bottle and drink some water.

"Pretty good, we're just comparing notes from the ambassadors who were previously assigned to our Faction and making sure Uriah and Will get caught up." Vega says as she studies a piece of paper.

I nod and look at the notes I have myself. "Anything I should know of before we head in?"

"Erudite has been up our asses about the fear simulation serum and gaining access to the results." Will says his eyebrows pulled together tightly. "It won't say why, but I don't trust it."

"So, let's make sure they don't have the time to ask." I decide looking at Will as he looks up. "I don't care what you have to say just get them distracted anytime they bring it up. I don't care if you spout crazy lies that piss them off."

"My specialty with my sister." Will grins saluting me before going back to studying his paper.

"Anything else?" I ask but the ambassadors shake their heads. I look at my watch. "Let's head upstairs."

I check my phone for a moment after I gather my things and wait for the elevator. Tobias has texted me that he was contacted by the foster parents to set up a meeting with his little brother. I smile and send him a copy of my calendar and let him know I can be there if he would like me there.

"What's got you all smiley?" Uriah asks as we all squeeze into the elevator. The other leaders left for the day to make sure the Faction isn't left without a leader there all day.

"Hmm?" I wipe the smile from my face and shove my phone away. "Nothing."

"Hmm." Uriah leans close and practically hangs himself over my shoulders. "I think your man sent you something."

I elbow his chest and roll my eyes. "Behave, you're representing Dauntless right now. Don't make me stick you on the fence."

When we exit back out into the same giant room I direct the Dauntless to a row of seats and have them sit with their partners. I look around the room and see the other factions and their ambassadors. I smile when I catch my mom's eye before I sit down.

"Hello everyone!" Marcus starts as he stands on the stage. "We have several new faces today. We will go faction by faction introducing the ambassadors and which faction they have been assigned to be working with."

Marcus gestures to me and I stand up with my tablet so I don't forget anyone's name or assignment. "Thank you, Marcus." I say before smiling at my ambassadors. "I’m going to name off the pairs and have them stand so they can be recognized." I announce as I look down at my tablet.

"Ambrose and Jenson will be the ambassadors who will host the Dauntless meetings." The two stand up. Ambrose is shorter like me with a slightly more feminine face, but piercings galore. His hair is dyed bright orange that spikes up. Jenson is tall but not as tall as Tobias. His skin is a rich amber and he has golden freckles dotted across his face.

"Vega and Buck will be attending the Candor meetings." Vega has long curly bright blue hair and is nearly completely covered in blue tattoos. Buck is a stocky man similar to Al and has almost no piercings or tattoos.

"Luz and Marie will be attending the Amity meetings." Luz has her hair cut in a cute light brown pixie and has bright green and purple tattoos. Marie has long strawberry blond hair, several piercings, and modified ears that have a point at the tip.

"Uriah and Quinn will be attending the Abnegation meetings." Uriah's gotten a few more piercings since the end of initiation and a few more tattoos, but his smile is endlessly kind. Quinn has her hair buzzed short and dyed purple.

"Will and Verily will be attending the Erudite meetings." Will's blond hair has a few darker streaks in it, Christina must be practicing on him. Verily has long black silky hair and has a little chain that connects her nostril piercing over her nose.

"Finally, for those who do not know, I am Tris the new Dauntless leader who so in charge of the ambassadors and taking the council chair." I sit down and I smile seeing my parents sit up a little taller with pride. They're proud of me.

The other ambassadors are announced and introduced. I only jot down the names of those we will be interacting with at their faction and at ours.

For Candor the two who will be hosting the meetings are Alice and Emmett. The two who will be coming to our meetings are Stephanie, Christina's mom, and Alethea. For Erudite the two who will hosting the meetings are Cara, Will's sister, and Athena. The two who will be coming to our meetings are Minerva and Conrad. For Amity the two who will be hosting the meetings are Holly and Zinnia. The two who will be coming to our meetings are Basil and Daisy. For Abnegation the two hosting the meetings are Susan Black and Elijah. The two coming to our meetings are Jedidiah and Bethany.

"That conclude our meeting." Marcus announces as he takes the stage again. "Welcome new and old ambassadors. Have a blessed day and may God be with you."

My subconscious takes control and I whisper "And also with you." I huff at the habit before turning to my ambassadors. "Thank you all for coming. I think you all deserve the rest of the day off. Please still look over all notes you've taken and be ready for your meetings."

I don't go for the exit immediately. I instead pull on my backpack and head over to my mother who is speaking with the ambassadors. "Excuse me." I keep my voice soft not wanting to cut her off.

"Bea- Tris." My mother says before pulling me into another hug. "I’m so proud of you." She whispers in my ear before pulling back.

"Do you need any help carrying your things home?" I ask wanting to speak with my mother.

"I think your father may need help. He took a nasty fall the other day and I think his bag may be too heavy for him." My mother says and I look over to my father.

His body is stiff as he slowly breaths as he lifts his bag from the ground. I quickly head over and take the particularly heavy bag for him.

"Let me help, dad." I say as I hold it and study him. I didn't notice the few scratches on his face and temple earlier. "Are you okay?"

"I’m fine, Beatrice." My dad says bowing his head.

"Well, let me carry your bag home. You've had a long day." I say noticing the bags under his eyes.

"Hey Tris!" I turn and see Uriah coming to me. "Hey, sorry, hi. Zeke just called. He said there was something you needed to see at the compound asap."

I pull out my phone and see several missed calls from Tobias and Zeke since I had silenced my phone during the meetings. "Dad, I’m so sorry. Uri, can you help my parents home? My dad took a fall earlier this week and I don't want him carrying this heavy bag."

"Beatrice." My father tries to object but I shoot him a look.

"No, you're injured and it is Dauntless' job to protect those who cannot protect themselves." I say handing the bag over to Uriah. "Besides, he's a good friend. Please, daddy."

He sighs and kisses my cheek. "How did I get so lucky to have a daughter as wonderful as you?"

"I had two amazing parents." I say kissing his cheek before smiling as my mom walks over. "Mom, this is one of my best friends, Uriah. He's going to help you and dad home. Apparently there's something I need to take care of."

"We'll find time to talk, Beatrice." My mom says kissing my cheek.

"Thank you, Uri." I kiss his cheek before I race out of the room dialing Tobias' number as I start to run down the stairs.

"Tris, hey, are you on your way back?" Tobias asks and I can hear it in his voice that something is wrong.

"Yeah, I’m sorry. I was catching up with my parents and I had my phone off for the meeting." I say as I run out of the building and up to the platform for the train. "What's going on?"

"Something big. Meet me and Zeke at home." Tobias says before I can hear Zeke's voice slightly muffled asking about his brother.

"Tell Zeke I sent Uriah with my parents. My dad fell earlier this week and got hurt and I wanted to make sure they got home safely." I say as I wait for the train.

"Is he okay?" Tobias asks and I sigh.

"I think so. I don't know. I was going to ask questions when I walked them home." I put Tobias on hold as I jump on the train. When I’m safely inside I take Tobias off hold. "But Uri is going to help them home and then come home."

"Okay, sounds good. We'll see you soon." Tobias says before we hang up.

It isn't long before I make it back to Dauntless and I jump off the train. I hurry up the stairs toward our unit. When I get in I heard Tobias and Zeke talking adamantly at the dining room table.

"Hey!" I call out pulling off my shoes before walking over. "What's going on?"

"Sit." Tobias says pointing to one of our dining room chairs.  "I was suspicious of Peter choosing to work the fence. So, we kept tabs on him."

I sit down and look at the laptop as Zeke hits play on the video. I watch Peter leave the compound and hop on a train. When he gets off he gets off far too far from the fence. That's when I see two Factionless people come up to him. They may be dressed in crazy colors, but it's undeniably Molly and Drew. I see Peter fish something out of his pocket and give it to them before walking off.

"What did he give them?" I ask looking up at the two.

"We don't know." Zeke plops in the chair next to me. "Can you think of any one Peter might be friends with still?"

"He doesn't have friends." I look at Tobias. "You two obviously have a theory of what he's handing over. So, spill."

"We think he's stealing fear simulation data." Tobias says as he cues up a second video and presses play.

I watch as Molly and Drew head to Erudite and meet with someone. "Why are they meeting at Erudite. They're Candor-born."

"We don't know." Zeke says before pausing on the Erudite member's face. "Do you know him?"

"I just met him today. That's..." I race back over to where I dropped off my backpack and pull out my tablet. "I have his name written down. Sorry." I scroll before I find it. "Conrad, his name is Conrad. He's an ambassador who will be attending Dauntless meetings. Shit." The curse slips from my mouth before I can stop it. "Erudite has been trying to get our results for a while apparently. I told Will today that we would need to distract them and not let them ask."

I start to pace as my mind races. They have a long distance serum. They have some results from the fear simulations. I stop and look at Tobias. "You go in the simulation a lot."

"I..." Tobias' ears turn pink. "What are you talking about?"

"Don't lie. It's an addiction. I know you go often. Anyway, my point is we don't know whose information that is. I know Molly and Drew were just made Factionless a few days ago, but can you go back and see if they snuck out and snuck the information previously? Or see if Peter meets with anyone?" I walk over and look at the computer. "Peter isn't smart enough to break into the simulation room and download data. He is cocky, but not smart. But, someone who runs the simulations and knows what information to look for and download and cover her tracks."

"Who?" Zeke looks absolutely lost and I look to Tobias who is also equally lost.

Right. Not Divergent. "Lauren." I say before looking at Tobias. "Is this logged in to the cameras or is this downloaded footage?"

"It's downloaded."

"Okay, when you can go back and see if Lauren ever goes in after you do a run in the simulation." I say and Tobias still looks absolutely lost. "How else would Erudite have been able to post those rumors about your dad? I only learned this year, you and your dad never said anything obviously. So where did the rumors come from?"

"My fear landscape, my last fear." It finally clicks and I nod.

"Which means someone must have watched your landscape the first time. Who watched it?"

"Amar was the only one."

"But, who was training with him and had to run the Dauntless born."

Tobias' face pales but shakes his head. "She wouldn't sell us out."

"Okay, I don't know what telepathic link you two have but it's creepy. Lay it out for the idiot in the room." Zeke huffs sitting back in his chair.

"I think we need to wait for Uriah and maybe even pull Will into this." Tobias says collapsing in a chair.

"I think you're right." I sigh and rub my forehead. "And as much as I think it would be a bad decision, Christina might be useful."

"Absolutely not." Tobias immediately shoots me down.

"She could be!" I argue and he shakes his head.

"She is a liability. She would blurt it out immediately and put everything at risk." Tobias crosses his arms at me.

I raise my eyebrow at Tobias and then gesture to Zeke. "And he won't? We both have loudmouth best friends. It would be unfair to bring in Will and ask him to keep this a secret from Christina. She can help."

"It's not happening. I'll sooner cut Will from this than let Christina be a part of it."

"Four, this faction gossips. The one person they will always talk to is their hairdresser. I think we should at least let her in a little. Not tell her the whole thing, but just a small bit."

"Like what that you're Divergent and that's how you made it to first place? Remember what happened when you made it to first place?"

I groan and rub my forehead. "Fine! We cut her and Will from the plan. Call Uri here. But we will be revisiting this idea later."

Chapter Text

Chapter Nine:

It's going to take Uri nearly an hour to arrive at the unit, apparently my mom wanted to thank him by cooking lunch for him. While we wait Tobias orders pizza and Zeke starts to scroll back for footage. I log into my laptop and start to pull member files to look over them since it would give us a better idea of who all we may need to look out for.

I look up at Tobias for a moment and stare at him. "What faction are his foster parents?" I ask staring at the love of my life who was lost in thought.

"They're in Erudite, why?" Tobias asks bringing me and Zeke plates of pizza.

"The blue statue." He isn't following my train of thought. "The one she gave you, where did she get it from?"

"I don't know." His eyebrows pull together.

"Was she Erudite before she was Abnegation? Think about it, a blue glass sculpture, where else do you see blue glass?" I turn to Zeke. "Can you go back to the footage of Molly and Drew handing over the information?"

Zeke quickly pulls the video back up and I pause it when I see it. "Is that what the sculpture looked like?" I ask pointing to a large blue sculpture in the center of a fountain.

"Yeah." Tobias falls into his chair and I look at him.

"Zeke, pull up the footage of the holding cells." I look at the computer over Zeke's shoulder as he speedily types. "There." I stop him on a video of Eric and Evelyn being far too friendly for being strangers. "I need to call my brother."

"Woah, why?" Zeke spins around.

"My brother knows about the serum. He is now in charge of serums. He became a leader. If anyone can get me her file it's him. Or my dad." I say going for my phone when Tobias stops me.

"Pause. We will get her file later. Uri is almost here. Let's let them in on what we know and game plan." Tobias says and I nod.

I sit back down bouncing my leg as I eat my pizza. Everything is going a million miles per second in my head as I try to lay it all out so I can sound coherent when I have to explain it.

"Tris, quit bouncing your leg." Tobias groans and I look at him.

"Hey, Tris?" Zeke looks up from his computer. "What did you get on your aptitude test?" Obviously trying to distract me from my thoughts.

"Abnegation." I say my leg still bouncing.

"Just Abnegation? I got Dauntless and Candor." Zeke says as he eats his pizza.

"I got Abnegation, Dauntless, and Erudite." I sigh running a hand over my ponytail. "It makes sense. My mom is from Dauntless, my dad is from Erudite and they chose Abnegation."

"And your brother?" Zeke asks and I shrug.

"I think he's just Erudite. But he's still my brother."

"I think if we involve any of your family in this it has to be your parents." Tobias finally speaks up again and I look at him.

"You're probably right. They would have the files I need and be able to help." I get off the chair and start to pace. I need these thoughts out of my head. There's too many of them, I’m going crazy.

Knock knock knock. I race to the door and open it before pulling Uriah into the unit.

"Hey, I’m here. Calm down." Uri says as he gently pulls away from me.

"Calm down? No." I say crossing my arms. "Sit. I have thoughts and if I do not get them out of my head I will explode."

"Tris, deep breath." Tobias says but I glare at him. "Okay, fine. Proceed."

"Please save all questions until the end because I don't want to lose my train of thought." I say grabbing my water bottle and sipping some much needed water. I start to pace as I take a deep breath.

"Okay, so what we know is Peter chose the fence job to be able to get information to the Factionless. Those Factionless being Molly and Drew. Problem is they're all Candor-born. So why are they going to Erudite to give the information? There has to be some connection we don't know just yet. But what we do know is that information is probably fear simulation results because that's what Erudite wants. Why? I don't know just yet. But it explains how they knew about Four's dad. There's two options for who could have gotten that information. It may just be one of them, but I’m leaning towards it being both Tori and Lauren. Tori would have been there when Four transferred and saw his fear landscape and Lauren has the tech knowledge to be able to do anything. It always leans more in favor of Lauren as she has been running initiation for two years with Four. But it also leans towards Tori who is Erudite-born.

"That would tie Tori to Eric, but also to Four's mom. I’m saying this, but it rides on her actually being Erudite but the evidence is pretty damning. She's too close to Eric to not know him. She's been Factionless for nearly ten years it's weird she knows someone the same age as her son but from another faction than the one her own son was born in. Even more weird that Four's little brother was just placed with foster parents in Erudite. They normally keep foster and adoptive parents with the same faction of the parents. With Factionless they do the faction they were born in. Which add more proof to Evelyn being from Erudite. But why is she pairing with Jeanine? Or is she? There is the possibility of her trying to work again Jeanine which would explain why the plan has been delayed. But that could also be attributed to my brother being made leader of Erudite in charge of serums." I take a deep breath and look at the three men in front of me who are looking at me like my head just exploded. "I'll take questions now."

"Sorry, how did your brain do all that?" Uri asks and I blink at him.

"Abnegation, Erudite, and Dauntless." I say before motioning for them to ask questions.

"I don't think Eric would go against an Erudite plan." Tobias says his eyes staring at the ground. "We should assume anyone outside of the people we trust wholeheartedly, is against us."

"Will is an Erudite-born how can you trust him?" Zeke asks and I nod at the question.

"Good question, my answer is that he changed his mind on his sister and has admitted he wishes I punched her on Visiting Day. I trust him with my life." I answer as I look at the three. "He is one of my best friends and is like a brother to me. Until he gives me reason not to trust him, I’m going to trust him."

"The serum they're making is long range." Tobias says getting up as he chews on his thumb. "From here to Abnegation. Jeanine hates Abnegation."

"If they know we're Divergent because of Tori then it makes sense why they might be putting it off and looking into the fear simulation serum." I say and once again they all stare at me. "They want to know why we can break out of simulations or know why they're simulations. If they want a mindless army they're going to study divergence and see how they can make us mindless in simulations."

"Wow." Uriah huffs rubbing his face. "This is a lot. Are you okay?"

"No, not at all. I feel like someone injected coffee into my veins and I’m on fire." I can't sit still. This is torture. I don't know what is going on. I hate this. I wish I knew everything.

Tobias hands me my water bottle and a pill. "It's a sleep pill to help you calm down. A mild sedative. I had to take it when the night terrors got too bad. It helps with anxiety and sleep."

I quickly take it and sit down hoping it helps. "At the moment everyone is an enemy. Four you cannot go into the fear simulation anymore. Not until we have a plan. Which!" I hop on my feet again. "If we get Christina and Will on board maybe even some of our other trusted friends we can have them go through the simulation. We delete all data and have non-divergent people go through it. Then the only data on there for them to take is non-divergent data. We could slow their research."

"It's a start of a plan." Zeke says before shaking his head. "I’m afraid only your friends are up for it. Shauna and Lynn are adverse to Divergent and if they knew... well let's just say I would be back to being single."

"Marlene's Divergent, Dauntless and Amity. Though she's not simulation aware like we are. She might work." Uri adds in. "If we need her. She's also a nurse, so if we needed to run fake tests that rely on the fear simulation it wouldn't look as suspicious."

I nod and stumble into a chair the sedative working a little too well. I struggle to reopen my eyes after I blink.

"Tris?" The voice sounds like it's underwater and I close my eyes too tired to keep them open. "Let me take her up to sleep off the sedative. Sorry guys, she was driving herself crazy with not having all the answers and that is dangerous."

I don't hear much else as strong arms pick me up. I lean into the strong body and relax. "We need-" I yawn cutting off my words as I try to force my eyes open.

"You need sleep." Tobias lays me down and tucks me into bed where I finally succumb to sleep.

When I wake up I rub my head looking at our alarm clock. It's nearly dinner time. I groan as I pull my heavy limbs out of bed and head to the bathroom to relieve myself. When I get back in our room I head to my closet and change into a pair of yoga pants and a tank top wanting to be comfortable. Instead of heading downstairs I open our balcony and step outside to breathe in the fresh air.

There's so much going on in our city and I fear we've found ourselves in the middle fighting against everything. Why? Why are we in the middle? Is it because we're Divergent? Because we don't want to see a war happen?

"This is stupid." I groan leaning against the railing staring out at the pier.

"What's stupid?" I jump at the voice behind me before relaxing as I spot Tobias at the door.

"The world, a plan of mass genocide just for a theory of them hiding Divergents." I sigh walking over to him.

He pulls me into his strong arms and holds me tight against his solid body.

"What proof do they even have that there are Divergents in Abnegation?" I ask and Tobias groans. "What?"

"I enjoy your Erudite brain, I do. But please try to stop it for now. You just did a whole rant and it's honestly still giving me a headache." Tobias says with a sly grin.

"Imagine how my head feels." I huff running a hand through my hair. "I’m hungry."

"Let's go to dinner." Tobias and I walk back inside and he closes the balcony door. "And to answer your question, maybe the aptitude test?"

"But no one transfers into Abnegation. Their population is already dwindling because even if people have the aptitude for Abnegation they're going to avoid it because of all the rumors." I pull on my sneakers and one of Tobias' hoodies before we leave the unit.

The conversation dies at the door knowing it's too delicate of a situation to speak outside of a safe location. I try to push it from my head as we walk hand in hand.

"I think I want to change up my hair." I decide to speak up first to get our minds off the impending doom of our city. "What do you think?"

"I think, you'll always be beautiful. What do you want to change it to?" Tobias asks as we walk down the stairs and then out of the Pire.

"I don't know. I was going to ask Christina because she's working as a hairdresser now. I just still sometimes see Beatrice." I huff playing with the long sleeve of the hoodie. "Which isn't bad, but I’m not her anymore. I’m not some scared little Abnegation girl who could barely fathom the idea of sleeping in the dorms and changing in front of everyone."

"I agree." Tobias wraps his arm around my shoulders to pull me closer as we walk towards the cafeteria. "So, change your hair."

"Changing hair?" I jump when Christina appears right in front of me with a giant grin on her face. "You want to change your hair?"

"Yeah, maybe a haircut to make it different?" I ask as Christina pulls me away from Tobias so she can talk with me about my hair.

"I could do some color. Maybe not vivids, but a nice copper color peekaboo underneath and copper front pieces and in your bangs. For cut we could do a shag with bangs?" Christina says inspecting my hair a little. "We have tech at the salon so you could see what it looks like on you before we do to."

"After dinner?" I ask and she grins.

"Let's make it a girl's night!" Christina cheers as we make it to the table.

"Girls night?" Marlene picks up practically vibrating in her chair. "Are we having a girl's night?"

They both stare at me and I know the other girls at the table are too. I look over to Tobias who nods and gives me a shy smile. Fine. I will allow myself to get distracted for a night to save my sanity.

"Yes, we're having a girl's night." I say and the girls at the table cheer. I sit down between Christina and Tobias and start to load up my plate.

"In that case we are having a boys night to plan out a secret!" Uriah cheers and I look at him with a raised eyebrow. "Come on Tris, we are officially members of Dauntless. Have you and Four even been out on a date yet?"

I feel my face flush as I glare at him. "I've been busy with my job." And it's only been a few days since the ranks were announced.

"Then let us plan out a date to treat our ladies." Zeke grins and the guys all cheer and so do the ladies.

I look at Tobias who shrugs and smiles at me. "Fine." I roll my eyes and return to my food.

"It'll be fun." Tobias whispers into my ear as he wraps his arm around me. "Act like the teenager you are."

I elbow his side gently and look up at him. "Didn't your last date end horribly?"

Everyone at the table oohs and Zeke starts to laugh. I see Tobias' ears turn red in embarrassment. I should feel bad, but if I get tortured with a girl's night then he gets tortured."

"Wait wait wait!" Mia calls slamming her hands on the table. "He went on a date?"

I nod and smile at Tobias who just nods accepting his embarrassment. "Yeah, Zeke asked him to go on a double date and Four insulted his date."

"Hey!" Tobias interjects. "I didn't mean to. Okay? She was asking if Zeke had showed me what she looks like and I told her I didn't think she was my type because I think personality is more important. And she put words in my mouth." Tobias' ears are bright red.

I set my hand on his leg and smile at him. "We know you don't like looks."

"Hold! What's that supposed to mean?" Will asks pointing his fork at me.

"I just mean I’m not the prettiest girl in the world." I feel my face turning red.

"Have you forgotten that you turned the heads of," Christina trails off silently counting on her fingers, "five guys?"

"Five? You're insane." I shake my head and pull my hair up into a messy bun.

"Yeah, five? I thought it was three." Shauna speaks up and I glare at her. "No, no, little miss. You got to embarrass your boyfriend. It's time you're embarrassed too, equality."

I look to Tobias who just smirks at me. "It is actually seven."

"You're all crazy. There is no way seven guys like me." I cross my arms and look at Christina who grins.

"Number one is Four, number two is Al, number three is Uriah, number four is Peter, and number five is Eric." She shoves her hand in my face and I act like I’m going to bite it so she pulls back from me.

"Don't forget Robert from Amity, and Drew.  Oh, add on Edward to that list and Lynn." Tobias adds and I look at the table. I see Uriah and Lynn flushed.

"Come on man! We didn't know she was your girl!" Lynn whines as she glares at Tobias.

"So, in total that's nine people who find you beautiful." Tobias smirks at me and I glare at him. "And I’m sure there's always more."

I roll my eyes at him and shake my head. My face is burning and I want the conversation off of me.

"Okay, okay, I'll take pity on you." Tobias chuckles kissing my temple. "So, girls night and guys night. Then we surprise our ladies with a date? When?"

I lean into his body as he wraps his arm securely around me again. I sip my water and play with a loose thread on his hoodie.

"Well the party is going to be tomorrow." Zeke announces causing the table to cheer.

"What party?" I raise my eyebrow knowing tomorrow I have to attend Candor interrogations all morning. Then I was going to see if I could sneak off to Abnegation to see my parents to get files I need.

"Candor or Dauntless!" Uriah grins and I groan into Tobias' shoulder.

Why are we friends with a bunch of loud energetic people?

"Ignore her, she's grumpy and needs a nap." Tobias says as he pulls the hood up over my head to help block out the sound and the light.

"I had a nap because you drugged me." I mutter with a yawn. I do need more sleep.

"Is it okay if we do the party tomorrow?" Shauna asks and I nod.

"Yeah, I just have to attend Candor interrogations all morning and then do some paperwork in preparation for the ambassador meetings next week. I’m just really tired tonight." I sigh before Tobias moves me so I’m sitting on his lap. I hide my blush in his shoulder with the help of the hood.

"You can be tired until we leave dinner because we have to dye your hair!" Christina claps obviously really excited to change my hair. "And we need to go shopping again!"

"Again?" I groan pulling the hood off my head now that my blush has somewhat subsided. "We just went shopping."

"Yeah, but we got you work clothes. We didn't get you any date clothes because you didn't want to get any dresses." Marlene says and I roll my eyes.

"Can't jump on a train in a dress." I point out and the others shrug. Tonight is going to be long and exhausting with the girls fretting over

Chapter Text

Chapter Ten:

"Tris, can you act like you don't hate us for this shopping trip?" Zora jokes causing the rest of the girls to giggle as we walk to the salon first.

"I don't hate you guys. I just hate shopping." I mumble as I play with the cuff of the hoodie.

"She hates being a girly girl." Christina chimes in as she opens the salon and ushers everyone in. "Okay, who all is getting their hair done?

Hands shoot up wand Christina grabs four capes before handing them out to me, Marlene, Shauna, and Mia. Christina ushers is into chairs and puts the capes on before pulling out a device.

"This is going to scan your face and then the mirror is going to show you what the different hairstyles will look like." Christina explains as she scans my face then inputs something. "This is what I was thinking for your hair."

The mirror shows me with a layered cut with bangs. The bangs are pretty full with longer pieces on the sides. The blond color is a bit brighter than my current dull wheat color. Then in the bangs there are streaks of copper with the tips of the longer pieces of my bangs also having copper in them. But what catches my attention is underneath my hair near my neck is that same copper color. It's beautiful.

"What do you think?" Christina asks and I know the girls all come over to look at it as well.

"Oh my god Tris!" Zora claps. "You have to get it! You have to! It'll drive Four crazy."

I flush and nod. "I really like it."

"Perfect! Let me get the other girls set on a look then I'll mix up everyone's color!" Christina cheers and walks away.

After a bit she finally mixes up bowls of color and starts to color my hair. She puts bleach in the hair we're keeping blonde and then adds copper to the underneath of my hair. She said she would tackle the bangs after the cut. I sit and process as she colors the other's hair. The rest of the girls are gossiping as Christina works, but I don't really have much to say. Tobias and I are both pretty private people.

"Tris!" I look up from my phone to the girls who are all looking at me.

"Hmm? What?" I ask putting my phone away.

"Are you finally going to get some sexy lingerie?" Christina pushes and I feel my face heat up immediately.

I'm not really scared of being intimate with Tobias anymore. I know he will be respectful and gentle when the time comes, but do I really want to talk about this right now?

"Come on, Tris!" Shauna whines. "That guy has needs."

I flush even more as I look down at the ground. "We aren't in any rush. Okay?"

"Tris, don't you want to rip off his clothes and have your way with him?" Marlene asks and I shake my head.

"Not even when another girl hits on him?" Mia asks crossing her arms.

"Again, seriously, we aren't rushing into anything. When the time is right then maybe we'll do things." I huff and Christina comes over and kneels in front of me so she can force me to look at her.

"Why not make date night the right time? You should be prepared! You don't want to get to the right time and have frumpy undies on." Christina smiles at me. "Do you even shave?"

"Oh my god!" I cover my face with my hands. "Can you all please just leave me alone. When I’m ready I will do things to then be ready for that. But until then please leave my private life private!"

"Fine." Christina and the girls fall silent and I huff as she takes me to the shampoo bowl and starts to wash my hair.

"I’m only bugging you because you're like my sister and I want you to be able to enjoy your first time without constantly thinking about what could have been better." Christina huffs as she rinses out my color and shampoos it. "Seriously, girl. Just think about stealing an extra long shower or a bath and at least trim down there because otherwise it'll be a mess if he's trying to please you."

"Can we please stop talking about it?" I just want to melt into the bowl and disappear down the drain.

"Fine." Christina kisses my forehead and I roll my eyes at her. She wraps a towel around my hair and takes me back to the chair before she rinses out the other girls' hair.

When she comes back she starts to cut my hair. Her hands move meticulously and I’m reminded of my mom cutting my hair in Abnegation. I take a deep breath and try not to cry about it.

"You okay, Tris?" Zora asks sitting next to me not getting anything done with her hair.

"Y-yeah." I sniffle and I feel Christina stop. Dammit. "No, yeah I’m fine." I wipe my face harshly and sigh. "It's just that I miss my mom. She was the only person before now who cut my hair. It was a really special time we got."

"Oh Tris." Zora hugs me as Christina hugs me from behind.

"Thank you for letting me have the honor." Christina says pressing her cheek into mine. "I’m sorry about teasing you."

I smile and take a deep breath and wipe my eyes again. "I don't know why I’m so sad. I just saw my mom." I huff as Christina starts to cut my bangs before she adds on the color.

"You miss her. I know I miss my mom and sister." She said softly as she smiles. "But I made my choice to be here and I’m really happy. I have a great best friend and new friends and I have Will."

"Speaking of Will, how are you two?" I ask and she grins.

"God, he is the most thoughtful person in the world. He bought me roses the other day because I had mentioned it was my sister's birthday and he bought me a necklace for completing initiation." Christina gushes with a loving sigh. "I love him a lot. Is it too soon?"

"No." I say softly as I pick at the hoodie sleeves again. "Four and I already said it." I whisper and Christina nearly screams. "Calm down!"

"Why is she screaming, Tris?" Marlene snoops grinning like her boyfriend.

"Four and Tris have said the L word to each other!" Christina squeals and I cover my ears with my hands.

"Wait really?" Shauna asks and I nod.

"Yeah, it's a long story, but we did the other day say it." I refuse any other questions by mimicking zipping my lips and they all groan but move on to gossip about other things. I don't want to tell them about Tobias' brother who we might adopt. I don't want to reveal such private things about his life. He can do that on his own time.

Christina blow dries my hair then styles it into my natural waves which only make the haircut look even better. I look like Tris, not scared little Beatrice who was going to live a quiet life in Abnegation with Robert Black. No. I am Tris, Dauntless leader and girlfriend of Four.

"God, you look amazing!" The girls squeal and we all pay Christina even if she's still in training. She's obviously doing well and excelling quickly.

We head out of the salon and to the clothing stores. Maybe they're right. Maybe I should be prepared. I sneak away from the group and try to hide my flushing face as I look at the bras and panties that are made of lacy and don't cover anything. They're so impractical.

"If you're looking for comfort go with this style. It won't bunch up in your butt." Shauna whispers from beside me making me jump. "Shh, if you want low-key be quiet. Pretty sure his favorite color is red by the way." She winks and taps a red set before walking off.

I flush and grab it quickly hiding it with my other purchases. I grab some toiletries that will help with trimming like Christina said. God this is embarrassing. Especially because I share a bathroom with him!

I quickly buy everything and ask for a second bag to go on top to hide everything from their prying eyes. We leave the store and head over to a dress store.

"Okay! I have news!" Shauna announces as we walk in. "Zeke is planning on proposing."

He is? He just told me he's hiding a giant piece of himself that would cause her to leave him.

"Woo!" The girls cheer and everyone starts to help Shauna pick the perfect dress. I even help and offer up a pretty purple dress.

After an hour of shopping I end up getting a knee length maroon dress with a maroon illusion neckline that looks like a halter top that gives more coverage of my chest. The bodice of the dress is like a corset with dark grey lace on it. On the waist there's dark grey ribbon and the skirt is flat maroon tulle with streaks of dark grey tulle mixed in. I end up getting matching maroon heels as well to tie it all together. Thank god the bra I bought can convert the straps so they're hidden.

I told the girls that the guys were at my unit so we all went to my unit with our bags. When I walk in I see the guys adamantly talking in our sofa.

"Hey guys!" We greet as we walk in.

The guys all welcome us and the others start to talk to the girls, but Tobias is on the couch eyeing all of us and his eyes pass right over me. Ouch. Why did he just ignore me? His face pouts slightly before he makes eye contact with me and his face flushes slightly and he offers a shy smile. Almost immediately he is off the couch and I'm a few steps he's in front of me his hand gently hovering over my hair.

"You like?" I ask biting my lip as I stare into his eyes.

"Yeah." He whispers before he pulls me into a lip crushing kiss.

"WOOOO!" Our friends cheer causing us to rip apart and flush.

"I told you he would find you irresistible!" Christina cheers from her position on Will's lap.

I cover my face with my hands and Tobias goes to take my bags. I almost let him before I remember what's in one of them. I keep a grip on them and try to play it off. "I’m going to go put them away."

"Okay?" He's curious but before he can do anything else I race up our stairs and to our room.

I shove the new lingerie in the bottom drawer in the back under everything. I hang up my dress bag and put my new shoes away before I head back downstairs to join the rest of them.

"So, Tris, new hair color?" Will asks as I sit next to Tobias.

"Yeah, wanted to look more like me." I explain as Tobias pulls my legs on to his lap and he starts to massage my feet. I lean back and gently draw on his shoulder with my finger.

"Why don't you ever massage my feet?" Shauna asks shoving her foot in Zeke's face.

"Get your nasty feet away from me, woman!" Zeke laughs shoving her feet away from him.

"But they hurt!" She whines pouting. "Four is massaging Tris' feet. You could take some notes."

Then everyone's eyes are on us once again and I freeze. "Can you all stop staring please?" I squeak out hating the attention. When they don't I cross my arms and glare at them. "Why is it whenever we do something that's just a normal thing you all freak out?"

"Because he's not normal. And no offense neither are you, Stiff." Lynn says looking away.

I feel Tobias stiffen at the name and I know he's heard it too many times in his life just like me.

"Hey, no. Don't call me that." I say and she looks at me with a nasty look. "Get out. Get out of my unit."

"Woah, Tris." Kai says and I look at him.

"No. I know I come from Abnegation, but I've been called a Stiff too many times. Peter even spray painted it on my bed during initiation. I’m done. I’m not a Stiff and I proved that. So, if you still want to be my friend you won't call me that. If you think I’m overreacting you can get out."

No one moves. Lynn's face is slowly turning red as she looks down. "I’m sorry, Tris." She says before standing up and offering my hand. "I didn't know Peter did that. I’m really sorry. I won't call you that again."

I shake her hand before sitting back down next to Tobias who promptly picks my feet back up and continues the massage. I look at him and he has a small proud smirk on his face.

"So, ladies, did you have fun shopping?" Zeke asks trying to break the tension.

"Yes!" Mia grins practically bouncing up and down on Imara's lap. "Christina did a fantastic job on our hair, we got to tease Tris a little out of love, and we all got dresses for our dates! So this date whether it be a group date or solo better be worth the money I just spend on this dress." She looks over her shoulder at Imara.

"Well, you'll be glad to hear it's a big group date." Imara kisses Mia's cheek before sitting back.

"Can you tell us where we're going?" Shauna asks and Zeke zips his lips.

"Fine! Be secretive!" Shauna rolls her eyes and looks at Tobias. "Hey, still have a deck of cards? We could play games? It's not that late."

I look at my watch and frown. It is unfortunately late for me. I have to be at Candor at 7am so I have to go to bed if Tobias and I are going to work out in the morning like we did today.

"Tris, come on!" Christina whines and I know she knows my face.

"I’m sorry, I have to be up at 7am for interrogations. I really need a shower and to go to bed." I say sadly. I really wish we could stay up and play games. But it's just too late.

"When do you have a day off?" Uriah asks his arms draped behind him letting Marlene and Lynn lean into him.

"I have the weekend off." I say checking my calendar on my phone. "Why?"

"Candor or Dauntless party on Saturday?" Zeke asks and I look at Tobias who shrugs.

"Sure, we could make a day out of it." He suggests rubbing my back.

"Really? A whole day?" Uri asks sitting up more.

"A whole day after lunch. But I can make a big group lunch and we can start it after." Tobias offers and the group cheers.

We all say goodnight and I thank Christina one last time for my new hair. When we finally close the door and lock it for the night I turn back to Tobias and smile as he starts to clean up the coffee table of empty beer bottles.

"You, mister, are in trouble." I say crossing my arms.

Tobias looks up raising an eyebrow with a small smile on his face. "What did I do?" He asks innocently.

I walk over and stand in front of him. "You didn't recognize me. Looked right over me like I didn't exist."

Tobias smiles and wraps his arms around me. "That's because you got a haircut and dyed your hair. Of course I didn't recognize you. But when I did I realized how absolutely gorgeous you are." Tobias leans down and kisses my forehead over my bangs. "I realized how fearless you look." He kisses my left cheek. "How beautiful you are." He kisses my right cheek. "How absolutely drop dead stunning you are."

He finally kisses me and I feel butterflies in my stomach as one of his hands cups the back of my head and the other rests low on my back. I wrap my arms around his waist gripping at the back of his shirt.

When we pull away I feel breathless and weightless as I stare into his eyes. I gently release his shirt from my grip before slowly bringing my hands to his sides. I bite my lip as I slowly move my hands under his shirt.

"Is this okay?" I ask finally feeling his warm skin under my hands.

He nods before pulling me into another feverish kiss. His tongue gently pokes against my lips until I open my mouth. His tongue tentatively enters my mouth. The moment our tongues meet they dance together. My hands slowly start to move up his sides and I gently trace over the flames on his rib cage causing him to groan into our kiss. His hand on my back dips down and grabs my butt before he pulls back his face flushed.

"Sorry, is this okay?" His eyes searching mine.

I nod smiling at him. "More than okay." I whisper my hands slowly moving to his front to feel his abs and I feel them tense under my touch. "I love you, Tobias Eaton. More than anything."

Tobias grins and pulls me into a soft short kiss. "I love you, Tris Prior, more than anything."

I slowly pull my hands away from him knowing we can't go farther than this tonight. I need to make sure I’m prepared and cleaned up and... oh god birth control.

I shiver and Tobias looks at me with a quizzing look. I know we should probably talk about it so we are prepared when we finally cross that bridge. I gently take his hand and pull him to the couch so we can sit.

"We should probably talk about it." I whisper playing with his hand as I stare at the ground my face heating up.

"About what?" Tobias asks his own voice strained and I relax knowing this is just as hard for him as it is me.

"Well, when..." I groan and cover my face with my hands. "When we finally do it."

"Do what?" I glare at him and see his bright teasing smile.

I shove his shoulder and throw my head back. "When we finally decide we're ready for sex." I hiss at him. "We need to make sure we don't have any unexpected pregnancies."

"Oh." Tobias gently takes my hand in his and plays with my fingers. "I have-" he coughs a little. "I have condoms. Zeke bought them because he thought it was a funny unit warming gift."

"The girls were trying to get me to buy lingerie all night." I admit looking at him my face matching his bright red face. "I snuck away from them because I knew I needed better stuff for the dress. That's why I didn't want you to take the bags."

Tobias chuckles a little and tucks a piece of hair behind my ear. "Yeah? I would never look in your things if you didn't want me to."

I relax a little and smile at him. "I’m just so embarrassed."

"I am too."

"Shauna told me red is your favorite color."

"It is. Did you buy red lingerie?"

"I did."

"I’m sure you'll look beautiful."

"I hope so. But anyway, I should probably get on birth control."

"Yeah, condoms aren't always the best protection."

I nod and cover my face again. "They felt so weird in upper levels when they did sex education."

"They did. They feel really weird to wear."

I rip my hands off my face and look at him. He's looking away from me and I smile at him. "Are we ever going to get away from our Abnegation roots?"

"Probably not." He finally meets my eyes and he gives me a shy smile. "But at least we're going through this horror together."

I nod and gently lean over to kiss his cheek. "I’m glad we are."

"We should head up to bed if you want to work out tomorrow morning before work." Tobias says standing up. He shifts uncomfortably and I nod as I stand up.

"You can take a shower first." I offer as we start to climb the stairs.

"Thank you. You have no idea the power you have." Tobias sighs and I raise my eyebrow as we walk into our room. "Tris, your hands on me feel like electricity. I am but a simple man sometimes."

I pause and stare at him again not fully understanding what he's saying.

"May I?" Tobias asks holding out his hand.

I nod and set my hand in his. He slowly pulls my hand to his body starting at his stomach. His eyes never leave mine as he slowly trails my hand down his body until my palm rests on the front of his hands. I feel the warm hard bulge in his pants. I know I should pull my hand away, but I can't help but gently rub it causing him to groan. I bite my lip as I step forward and rub it a little harder.

"God Tris." Tobias moans his head falling back as his hips push forward to meet my hand.

I step even closer wanting to feel it against my body. I pull my hand away but quickly replace it with my own hips.

Tobias groans and grabs my hips as he starts rocking his hips into mine. "Turn, turn please."

I turn around and push my butt into his hips and I can't help but moan at the pressure. He feels so good against me. I feel his hips pick up in speed as they rub against me. His arms wrap around me and one hand lands on my breast and his other hand on my hips close to my crotch. I pull his hand down to my crotch and moan as his fingers push against my vagina.

"Tobias." I moan reaching back to grab his head. I pull him down and twist my neck so I can kiss him.

Our tongues dance together as his fingers rub me and his hips start to grind into me more furiously. His hand on my breast pulls back before it dives under the top of the hoodie and my shirt under his hand is back on my breast under my bra. I moan into his mouth.

I want more. I need more. I pull away and turn so I can face him again. I see the desire I feel reflecting in his eyes. My hands go to his jeans but it snaps him out of his desired daze.

"We can't." Tobias says grabbing my wrists.

I frown as I stare at him. "Why not?"

"You have work tomorrow and your first time it's going to hurt."

I think back to the class and frown knowing he's right. The teacher went over how the first time is always painful for women since they're not used to penetration. Even if there's preparations taken to help, it's common for women to bleed because of the hymen breaking. With the amount of walking and standing I will do tomorrow, tonight is not a good night for us to do it.

Tobias groans as he shifts his stance. I feel awful letting him stay like this. This is my fault.

"Can..." I swallow my fear and look up at him. "Is there anything I can do to help this situation I put you in?"

"And risk you asking again?" Tobias asks pulling away.

I feel my heart pierce at him pulling from me. I know it's to protect me and keep me from being sore tomorrow, but dammit it feels like rejection.

"Please don't look at me like that. I want nothing more than to love your body completely. To love you completely. To give you myself completely." Tobias says gently cupping my chin in his hand. "But I want to save you from being sore or in pain tomorrow. I promise, if we get worked up after the game or on Sunday I will make love to you. But right now we both need a cold shower."

I nod and try to not let my feelings show on my face. "Okay." I pull back and let him go to the shower. I sit on the bed and pull out my phone to do research on how to clean up down there.

When he returns I kiss him before grabbing my new bag of toiletries and head into the shower. I take extra long trimming and then carefully shaving my legs and then down there. Christina had taught me to shave my armpits during initiation and I’m so glad she did. I know the misfits would have made fun of me if I didn't.

When I feel satisfied with my work I finish up my shower reveling in how smooth and soft my skin is. I apply my new body lotion before pulling on my new set of pajamas. A pair of shorts and one of Tobias' shirts.

When I walk out of the bathroom I smile at Tobias who is on his phone reading. "What are you reading?" I ask as I climb in bed and curl into his side with my leg hooked over his.

One of his hands immediately lays on my knee before it pulls back and he looks at me. "You're wearing shorts."

"I am. Figured I would try it out." I say before trying to peek at his phone. "What are you reading?"

"A message from a blocked number. I don't know how they got my phone number." Tobias chews on his thumb. "But, shit." He curses and I look at his thumb to see it starting to bleed.

I climb out of bed and head into our bathroom to grab our first aid kit. I hurry back and sit on his lap so I can take his hand in mine.

"You're killing me, Tris." Tobias huffs and I look at him before I move off his lap but keep his hand in mine.

"Sorry." I whisper as I open the first aid kit and grab an antiseptic wipe. "I told you not to pick at your thumb." I chastise him as I clean his thumb before putting a bandaid over it.

"It's a bad habit." He sighs as I release his hand and put the first aid kit on my bedside table. "The person who texted me said we have to take in Theseus, my brother."

I raise my eyebrow. "Does it say why?"

"Yeah." He grunts his face showing just how pissed off he is. "So a mother and son aren't separated forever."

I sigh and gently touch his shoulder. "Tobias."

"I doubt they even know she abandoned me." He huffs shutting off his phone and plugging it in next to mine. "Let's just go to bed."

I nod and we lay down facing each other. I gently brush over his cheek before gently kissing his lips. "You don't have to do anything you don't want to. This decision is up to you. I have you back no matter what you choose."

"Thank you." Tobias whispers kissing my nose. "I’m sorry I got so worked up earlier."

I press my finger against his lips and shake my head. "We both got worked up. That just proves we're ready and I personally cannot wait."

"I love you." He whispers.

"I love you." I whisper back before we fall asleep for the night.

Chapter Text

Chapter Eleven:

Through the week work has been nonstop. With the interrogations then meetings and then more meetings and meetings galore. Tobias, Uriah, Zeke, and I have decided to wait on making a plan until after my ambassador meeting next week, which is when we will pull Will into the conversation and reevaluate who we will bring in.

I had gotten my period the day of interrogations. So, I got my birth control shot the same day hoping it would shorten my period. Since I was on my period Tobias kept touches soft, gentle, and short. My period ended today, thankfully, but he doesn't know just yet!

I stand in my walk in closet looking at my outfit. I’m wearing my new lingerie. I have on a pair of solid maroon tights, over the maroon tights I have ripped black tights to give texture, then I have a black skirt over top. For my upper body I have a fishnet top under a black tank top then I have on a loose maroon blouse on partially buttoned up. I topped off the outfit with my cropped blazer. I pull on my heeled combat boots before heading across the room to do my makeup.

"BEATRICE PRIOR!" I hear Christina screaming from the hall. "IF YOU DO NOT HURRY UP I’M GOING TO BARGE IN WHETHER YOU'RE CLOTHED OR NOT!"

I roll my eyes and stomp out of my bathroom to open my bedroom door. "Calm down, I’m putting on makeup." I huff before walking away letting her follow me into the bathroom where I finish applying makeup.

"Well, look at you." Christina grins in the mirror and I roll my eyes at her as I line my waterline with black to make my eyes pop even more. "You look cute!"

"Thanks." I apply a lip stain before deeming myself ready for the game. "Let's go back downstairs." I say hooking my arm with hers.

We head back downstairs and I hear someone whistle at us. I roll my eyes as we reach the bottom.

Tobias pops his head out of the kitchen and I swear his eyes pop out of his head before he composes himself. He smiles before heading back into the kitchen to finish lunch.

I let Christina head to the dining room to sit with our friends while I head to the kitchen. I wrap my arms around Tobias' waist as he cooks at the stove. "Smells good." I hum against his back.

"You look good." Tobias says before gently pulling away a little only to offer me a spoon of the rice he's been cooking. "It's fried rice. There's sauce, egg, and veggies in it."

I take the bite and almost moan at how good it is. "This is delicious." I say before I stand and kiss him. "You are a wonderful cook."

"Go sit, I'll bring lunch out." Tobias says and I go to walk away when he smacks my butt. "Tease."

"I don't know what you're talking about." I grin over my shoulder. I walk out and take my seat next to where Tobias will sit.

"Dude, your unit is so cool." Uriah says as he sips his water.

"Thanks." I smile before my phone goes off. "Sorry, excuse me." I walk off to the kitchen to take the phone call causing Tobias to look at me.

"Tris Prior?" The voice asks it's a nastily woman's voice that irritates my ears.

"Yes, who am I speaking to?" I ask leaning against the counter next to Tobias.

"I’m the foster mother of Theseus Johnson. I was told you're dating his brother?" The woman asks and I look at Tobias then nod to the door of the kitchen.

He walks over and says something to the group before closing the door.

"Yes, I'm dating his brother. Is there a reason you called me instead of him?" I ask as Tobias stands in front of me. I take his hand so he can't pick at his thumb.

"I've been told you're the new leader of Dauntless so I opted to reach out to you. I also know you're only sixteen." The woman sounds like she absolutely hates me.

"I am, but his brother is eighteen. And as you said, I'm a leader of a faction. I know you rejected our request to meet Theseus."

"Because you're both so young. This child has -Theseus get down from there!- please hold." The woman sets the phone down but I can hear her yelling at the boy before I hear a deafening smack of skin and then a little boy crying.

"Shit Tris." Tobias pulls his hand back and I look up to see his hand bleeding from my nails.

I go to look at Tobias' hand when the woman's voice stops me. "You're not prepared for a child."

I scoff and run a hand through my hair. "No, you're not prepared for a child." I hiss back. "I’m calling the agency right now. You have no right to lay your hands on that boy." I hang up and look at Tobias as I call the agency. I grab a piece of paper and quickly scribble down what happened.

"Hello, Candor adoption and foster agency. This is Loyalty speaking, how can I help?" A kind woman answers the phone.

"Hi, Loyalty. This is Tris Prior, we've been in contact trying to meeting and possibly secure temporary custody over Theseus Eaton." I say and I see Tobias return to cooking his Four mask on tight. I don't know how we're going to play a carefree game with this going on.

"Let me pull up the file." I hear her keyboard click a few times before she hums. "Got it. Is something wrong?"

"His foster mother from Erudite just called me saying she was not going to allow visitation then during the call I heard her yell at him and then smack him."

"Are you sure she hit him? Did you see it?"

"No, it was a phone call, but I’m Dauntless. I know the sound of skin hitting skin. Then I heard his little voice cry out."

"This is a serious matter, we will look into it right away. In the event of this being true and we need to remove him from her custody, are you wishing to take custody of him?"

I ask to put her on hold before I look up at Tobias. "Baby," I gently touch his arm, "hey, they're asking if they investigate and take him from that house if we're going to take him in."

Tobias takes a deep breath and rubs his face. "Did you hear her hit him?"

I nod feeling tears prick my eyes remembering his little voice crying. "I heard her smack him pretty hard and then his little voice. Tobias, his little voice broke."

"Then we take him." Tobias gently brushes over my cheek. "I'm not saying I don't believe you, but with my sister out there a part of me doesn't want to."

I nod and hug him. He wants to believe it's not true so he doesn't worry about his sister being abused as well.

"But if it's true, then we will take him." Tobias kisses my forehead.

I return to the call and let Loyalty know that we would happily take custody of Theseus if what I heard is true. When we hang up I take a deep breath trying not to let this ruin our night.

"They're going to investigate. Do we want to cancel the game?" I ask as Tobias transfers the food into serving dishes.

"No, let's enjoy our night and if we need to stop the game then we'll have to explain to the group. They're going to be seeing us with a toddler soon enough. They'll have to know sooner or later. My friends already know who I am. They don't know about my mom."

"But are you okay with my friends learning?" I ask touching his arm again.

"Do you trust them?"

"With my life."

"Then I trust them with mine."

I pull him into a sweet kiss before the door to our kitchen opens.

"Hey! Stop making out! We're hungry!" Zeke laughs and I roll my eyes.

"Grab a dish of food!" I tell him grabbing the bowl of rice.

I keep my phone near me ready to answer immediately if we get the call. It's silent through lunch so we decide to clean up and head to the living room to start the game.

"Tris! As first jumper, I’m going to go first!" Zeke laughs and I roll my eyes. "And I’m going to ask first jumper to first jumper, Candor or Dauntless?"

I tap my chin with a smile before shrugging. "Dauntless."

Zeke gets a devilish grin on his face. "If you're Dauntless, you will..." he trails off thinking of a dare. "Give Four a hickey!"

I look at Tobias and then at Zeke with my cheeks flushed. "What is a hickey?"

"Oh my god!" The girls practically shout. I flush more and look at Tobias for some rescue.

"Leave the Stiff alone." He chuckled bumping me with his shoulder. "It's where you kiss and suck on my neck until a bruise forms."

I look at everyone before crossing my arms. "Can I do it in a different room?" Zeke nods and I get up and pull Tobias into the downstairs bathroom. I close the door and stare at him. "How do I do this?"

"Let me show you." Tobias grins before he kisses me. He trails kisses across my cheek then down my neck. He finds a good spot behind my ear and nips at it then sucks gently. He alternates a bit before pulling back.

I check in the mirror and see a small red mark behind my ear. I smile before turning to him. I kiss him before copying his previous moves. I kiss across his cheek then down his neck. I stop halfway down his neck and gently nip at it before I start to make the hickey the same way he did mine. When I pull back I see a red mark on his neck.

I press my thumb against it before kissing it. I pull him out of the room and sit back on the couch with him. Everyone oohs at his new mark, but he wears it with pride.

"Christina, Christina, Christina." I shake my head like I’m disappointed in her. "Candor or Dauntless?"

"Dauntless, do your worst!" She grins at me.

"If you're Dauntless, you will get a tattoo of a moth!" I grin back at her.

Her face is stunned as she stares at me. She immediately whips her jacket off her body and shakes her head. "No, you evil evil girl."

"Good job." Tobias whispers into my ear as I lean against him as the game continues.

I don't really pay attention. I check my phone hoping for a call or a text or something. The only thing I see is a sarcastic text from Eagle about him having to go to Candor for an emergency interrogation thanks to me. I hope it's the foster mother. I show Tobias the text as I grab my water bottle and sip at it.

"Four!" Will's voice snaps me out of my thoughts. "Candor or Dauntless?"

"Candor." Tobias answers and apparently it's a shock to everyone.

"What? Come on! You never do Candor!" Uriah whines pouting like a little kid.

"Well I said it." Tobias flips off Uriah before motioning Will to ask him a question.

"What is your real name?" Will asks earning groans from the rest of the group. "What?"

"Four won't answer that." Imara says. "I've been trying to ask for years. Apparently Mia knows, but she won't tell me. I think she's lying."

"I am not! But I won't tell you! It's Four's secret." Mia pouts shoving her girlfriend.

Tobias sits up and leans his elbows on his knees. "This doesn't leave this unit. Understand? I’m only answering because I know there's going to be a big shift later that will require you all to know. So, I want no follow up questions and no one will mutter this name. Understand?"

Everyone nods and Tobias looks back at me. I smile and rub his back where I know the Amity circle resides at the bottom.

"My name is Tobias Eaton." He finally says and Christina, Imara, and Will's mouths drop open. Before anyone can say anything Tobias moves on. "Uriah, Candor or Dauntless?"

"Dauntless, duh." Uri says with a smile.

"If you're Dauntless, go steal us some cake." Tobias says.

"Say less!" Uri is up in a flash and runs out of the unit.

While we wait the group picks up conversation. I nervously bounce my leg my eyes never leaving my phone. It feels like forever until it rings.

I immediately grab it and race into the kitchen to answer it. "Hello?"

"Tris." Eagle says through the phone his voice nervous. "Are you and Four really ready to take in this kid?"

Tobias enters the kitchen and I look at him. "Yes, we're ready to take him in." We aren't. We don't have anything for him. "We have to grab stuff for him, but when should we expect him?"

"In two hours. He's at the hospital right now." My heart breaks at that as I stumble back.

"The hospital? What happened?" I ask as I put the phone on speaker so Tobias can hear.

"The woman broke his leg and threw something at him that cut him pretty bad." Eagle's voice is shaking. It must had been hard to hear a child abuser speak and confess to hurting a toddler.

"Eagle," Tobias' voice waivers. "Is the adoption agency woman with you?"

"Yeah, need to speak to her?" He ask.

"Yeah, and you might need another interrogation." Tobias huffs and I look at him.

"I'll hand the phone over and wait."

There's rustling before I hear Loyalty sniffle. "Tris, Four. I'll draft up the papers soon, but he will be in your custody tonight. I'll be dropping him off personally." She says.

"Thank you." Tobias says before taking a deep breath. "I need a favor. And I understand if you need an interrogation or whatever. I don't care. But my mother, the same mother of Theseus, had a little girl nine nearly ten years ago."

"Was the adoption closed?" Loyalty asks.

"I believe so. But I need to know. At least for my own peace of mind. I need to know if she's safe. You don't have to tell me who she is, but I need to know she's okay."

"I don't know what all I can do."

"Please, Loyalty." Tobias' voice breaks and I gently wrap my arm around his waist. "I'll do anything to know if she's okay."

"I'll look into it and see what we can do. I can't make promises. Okay?"

Tobias nods and I pick up the phone. "Thank you Loyalty." I hang up the call and look at Tobias. "Hey, we need to go shopping."

Tobias takes a deep breath and nods. "Yeah."

"He's going to be okay. We'll take care of him." I promise kissing Tobias before we walk out of the kitchen. I see Uri is back with cake. "Hey guys, I’m sorry we have to cut the game short."

"What? Why?" Zeke whines and I look at Tobias.

"This is your story, my love." I say rubbing his back where the Dauntless circle is in his tattoo.

Tobias sits on the couch and runs a hand through his hair. "I don't want any questions or interruptions." Everyone nods so he starts. "The Erudite rumors are true. My dad was abusive. He abused my mother and I. When I was eight nearly nine she got pregnant and he really turned his anger towards me. One day when I was nine he went back to her. Then he told me she had a miscarriage and died at the hospital. It was false. My mother gave birth to a little girl, put her up for adoption and became Factionless. I learned all of this two years ago. Just last week I learned my mother had had another child four years ago, a little boy. She had been arrested and the boy was put in foster care in Erudite.

"We have been trying to meet with him as my mother begged me to take in my little brother. I originally didn't want to because why the hell was he so special? Why did my mom keep him and not me? But after working through some shit I realized I would never really know if he were safe and loved unless he was with me. It's that same thought about my sister that keeps me up at night, not knowing if she's okay. So we were trying to set up a meeting just to meet them to discuss taking him in. Before lunch his foster mother called and Tris heard her hit him."

Everyone in the room gasps but I hold up my hand to them. Tobias looks at me and I nod and take over. "Eagle had gone out to do the emergency interrogation where she admitted to breaking his leg and throwing something at him that shattered and cut him. He's currently in the hospital being treated. In two hours he will be here with me and Four." I sigh and look at Tobias.

"I will allow one question per person." He gruffs knowing they won't ever not be curious.

"Is that really wise for you and your sixteen year old girlfriend to take in a four year old?" Lynn asks and I look at her. What is her problem?

"Yes, I think it's better than him going to another abusive home and growing up like me." Tobias says sitting up.

"Are you guys going to try for permanent custody?" Zora asks rubbing her pregnant belly.

"Most likely." I answer resting my hand on Tobias' knee. "Evelyn is... she's Factionless. I doubt he's very well taken care of out there. A faction is where he deserves to grow up."

"Need help picking out furniture?" Christina asks too shocked to ask anything else.

I laugh at the question but nod. "Yeah, we have two hours to get him the bare necessities."

"Shopping we go!" The others cheer.

I look at Tobias who has a small smile on. I hug him before we leave our unit. "You were very brave."

"Only because I have you." He smiles kissing my head before we leave to go shopping.

We were able to pick everything in under an hour and the guys carried the boxes of unassembled furniture back to the unit. We spent the next hour as a group building the furniture talking about the little boy about to join our family.

"Tris, what do your parents feel about you dating such an old man?" Kai asks and I stop in the middle of making the toddler bed.

"They don't know?" Christina asks and I flush a little.

"Haven't really had time to tell them. I have lunch scheduled with them after the Erudite ambassador meetings." I say as I put a pillow case on the small pillow. "But I’m pretty sure my mom has her suspicions."

"Yeah?" Tobias asks from where he's assembling the dresser with Zeke.

I roll my eyes and flush a little.

"Story time!" Zeke cheers and I laugh.

"Yeah, my mom met Four on Visiting Day." I say but Mia holds up her hand.

"Wait so even she has to call you Four?" Mia asks and Tobias shrugs.

"She respects the secret identity." Tobias says before looking at me. "I guess around friends she doesn't have to. I like when she says my name."

I smile at him before continuing my story. "My mom met Tobias." I scrunch up my nose. It's weird to say it in front of people. "She met Four," I correct, "sorry it's weird to call him that in front of all of you. And she probably knew who he was the moment she met him. But when he left us she commented on how handsome he was and I couldn't even form words. I just nodded my head like it was going to pop off my neck."

"Awe! Stop! That's so cute!" Shauna gushes and I roll my eyes as I spread out a soft grey blanket on the bed.

A loud knock echos through the unit and I look at Tobias. "You guys finish up." I say before we exit the room and head downstairs to answer the door.

Chapter Text

Chapter Twelve:

Loyalty stands at the door dressed in black and white clothes with red rimmed eyes. Next to her is a little boy on crutches with a lime green cast on his lower leg. Eagle stands next to Loyalty and Max stands behind Theseus.

"Come in." I say stepping out of the way. "Why don't we sit on the couch?"

We all make it over and I kneel down next to Theseus. "Would you like some help, buddy?" I ask the shy little boy who keeps his head down.

He nods stiffly and I gently lift him up before setting him on the couch. "Thank you, ma'am." He whispers.

"Tris, Four, for you to take temporary custody of Theseus, you will need to sign these papers. Loyalty will also need to do a walk of the unit." Max says setting out papers for Tobias and I.

"Our friends are upstairs setting up his room as we speak. We didn't have much time so we got the bare necessities and we'll get whatever we need to." Tobias says to Loyalty. "But I can show you the unit." They walk off on a tour.

I look at the little boy who is stiff, silent, and as still as possible. I look at the papers and then back at Eagle and Max. "So what all are these papers?"

"Release forms of him into your care. A contract saying we can terminate rights if need be. A contract to take him to the infirmary for constant medical check ups and also to Erudite for therapy. These are his medical records, well what the city has for medical records." Max explains.

I sign on all the forms not really caring about them just caring about the little boy on my couch who looks so lost. I look over his medical records and frown only seeing the charts from his intake into foster care and then today's incident report.

"He will need to go to the infirmary every week to monitor growth to insure he is in a good placement. If he does not grow or gain weight to the average for his age then he will be pulled." Eagle explains and I nod.

"I understand." I say before Tobias and Loyalty come back. I see Tobias holding a stuffed animal we had bought for him.

Tobias kneels in front of the couch near Theseus and smiles kindly at him. "Theseus, do you know who I am?"

Theseus shakes his head. "No, sir."

"I’m Tobias, maybe your mom mentioned me?" He says softly.

Theseus' eyes grow wide and he nods but I see him holding back excitement. "Mama mentioned you, sir."

"You don't have to call me, sir. I know the family who had you earlier were mean, but Tris and I aren't mean I promise. You know, my dad hurt me too. Just like Julianna hurt you. I know it's scary right now." Tobias says before showing Theseus the stuffed bear. "So, we got you this bear. He might look like a regular teddy bear, but this one is special. Do you know why?"

God he's going to be an excellent father one day. Theseus shakes his head.

"This bear is from Dauntless like Tris and me. He's fearless and he's going to protect you. Okay? He won't let anything bad happen to you ever again." Tobias promises and I wipe my tears as Theseus takes the bear in his arms and hugs it.

I gasp when Theseus jumps from the couch into Tobias' arms and starts to cry into his shoulder.

"I have you, buddy." Tobias whispers holding Theseus in his arms. "I won't let anyone else hurt you." Tobias turns on his toes and carefully signs all the papers before looking at Max and Eagle. "Please don't repeat what you've heard me say to anyone else."

Eagle looks conflicted since he works so closely to Candor, but before he can speak Max does. "We won't, Four. Unless you make a formal accusation no one will know."

I say goodbye to our three guests while Tobias sits on the couch still holding Theseus tight in his arms. I smile at the two before I see everyone on the stairs.

"Thanks guys, for helping and everything." I say before they all leave. I walk over to the couch and watch the two.

"Theseus, this is Tris." Tobias says gently pulling Theseus back. "She's my girlfriend and she was the fearless one who suggested we take you in to make sure you're safe." He says before he whispers something in the boy's ear.

Theseus launches himself at me and I catch him with a laugh. "Hi Tris!" He cuddles into my neck with his bear trapped between us.

"Hey, buddy." I brush through his dirty blond curls. "What did Tobias whisper to you?"

"It's a secret." He says before beckoning me down so he can whisper in my ear. "He says he loves you." He giggles and I can't help but laugh with him.

"Did he?" I ask and Theseus nods. "Well can you tell him a secret for me?" I lean down and kiss his head before whispering. "I love him too."

Theseus sits up with a giant grin on his face and that's when I see he's just like Tobias. "Toby! She loves you too!"

We all laugh a little before Theseus starts to whine in pain. Tobias gets him a dose of pain medicine and that knocks Theseus out for a nap. I keep him in my arms asleep against my chest as I play with his hair as Tobias sits next to us.

"How did I get so lucky?" Tobias thinks out loud and I look at him with an eyebrow raised. "I have the world's most perfect girlfriend in my life. Without you I wouldn't have him."

I smile and blush as I curl Theseus' curls around my finger. "I was thinking the same thing about you earlier. When you were telling him about his bear."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, I was thinking about how you're going to be a wonderful father one day."

"And you're going to be a wonderful mother." Tobias leans over and kisses me before kissing Theseus' head. "Kind of crazy he looks like you and me mixed."

"Yeah." I sit back and rub Theseus' back. "Curly blonde hair, light blue eyes, but a hooked nose, spare upper lip. His ears are just like yours."

"Ears?" Tobias wrinkles his nose and I nod.

"Yeah, both of you have ears that stick out a little. It's really cute. One of the first things I noticed about you aside from your eyes."

"My ears?"

"Yes! I think they're cute." I reach over and gently tug on his earlobe to tease him before looking down at the angel cuddled into me. "I don't think I'll ever be able to give him back. I love him already."

"I’m with you on that." Tobias says catching my hand holding it tight. "But for that we have to get married."

"We do?" I ask.

"Yeah, that way there's less likely a chance of us splitting and fighting for custody."

"Makes sense." I say before smiling. "But you have to propose. I’m not just gonna marry you because we have a child."

"I promise I'll propose and make it special. But I like the sound of that. Our child, our son." Tobias grins before looking at his watch. "We should go to dinner."

I look at my watch. How have we been sitting on his couch for that long? "Do you want to carry him?"

"He looks really comfy in your arms. I'll carry his crutches." Tobias grins grabbing the small crutches before helping me off the couch.

I keep Theseus in my arms as he sleeps on our way to the cafeteria. I already hear people whispering around us about the little boy. Since he's so small some people think he's Tobias' son. Other's think he's mine because of the hair. We ignore them as we walk to our table and I carefully sit down making sure not to disturb the little boy.

"Stop! He's so cute!" Shauna gasps. "And he miraculously looks like you two! Oh he's precious."

"What's his name?" Mia asks as she eats cake.

"Theseus." I answer and the sweet boy looks up at his name with a yawn. "Hey buddy."

"Hi Tris." He whispers rubbing his eyes. "Where we?"

"The cafeteria, buddy." Tobias says rubbing his back. "Are you hungry?"

Theseus nods before wiggling. "Sit myself." He says and I carefully help him off my lap between Tobias and I, but he's too short to reach the table.

"Booster seat!" Zeke gets up and races off before coming back with a little black seat. "Hey buddy, I am your brother's best friend." Zeke says kneeling down. "I got you a little booster seat so you can see the table. Can you sit on Four or Tris' lap so I can make sure it's safe?"

I spot Shauna covering her mouth at the interaction. Oh the baby fever hit.

Theseus climbs on Tobias' lap carefully. Zeke secures the booster seat on the bench with a few straps that go under the bench and then one that connects to the table. Tobias carefully lips Theseus up and sets him in the booster seat and he's able to see the table now.

I grab him a small plate of food before setting it in front of him. "Here you go, buddy." I say brushing over his blond curls.

"Thanks Tris!" Theseus then starts to eat happily. God he has stolen my heart.

I grab my own food and start to eat as the conversation picks up. After Theseus finishes his food he pokes Tobias' shoulder.

"Toby can I have more please?" He asks scooting his plate to Tobias.

"Absolutely. But save room for cake, okay?" Tobias gets him a second helping of vegetables.

"Cake?" Theseus asks before spotting Uriah's piece of cake. "Okay!" He eats his vegetables before looking at me. "Tris can I have cake now?"

"Absolutely." I get him a small slice of cake and kiss his head. I spot Tobias looking at me over Theseus.

"I love you." He mouths to me and I smile.

"I love you too." I mouth back before I grab my own slice of cake.

"Oh my god, Four obviously had an affair with someone and now he's trapping Tris with him because she's a leader and he isn't." I hear someone whisper behind me at another table.

I get out of my chair and turn before slamming my hands on their table right next to the woman who was spewing lies. "Didn't know Dauntless was so full of gossip." I say sitting down next to her before I grab the knife from her plate. "I'd be careful what lies you spew about my boyfriend and me. Got it?" I twist the knife in my hand looking at her. "Or you'll find out why one of the initiates from my class left due to injury."

"Tris." Tobias calls and I look over my shoulder.

I smile sweetly as I hand the knife back to the absolutely terrified woman. I get up and sit back down with my friends and family.

"Wait, you didn't stab Edward. did you?" Christina asks looking absolutely terrified of me.

"No, I didn't. But I’m not letting anyone talk about my boyfriend or Theseus." I say looking over to my little angel who is rubbing his eyes trying to stay awake. "Buddy, are you sleepy?"

Theseus nods and makes grabby hands at me so I gently pick him up out of his booster seat and rock him in my arms.

"God, you're such a cute little mom." Zora says rubbing her belly.

"You'll be just as cute." Kai promises and I smile at them.

"We should get him to bed. He's had a long day." Tobias says looking at me. I know he's pissed off.

I stand up carefully with Theseus and carry him back to our unit. Tobias and I get him changed for bed care of his cast before we tuck him into his little bed. I turn on the little nightlight we bought before heading to our room with Tobias.

"Before you get mad, hear me out." I say as I pull off my jacket. "I don't like when people talk badly about you and if someone was saying bad things about me you would defend me and scare them just like I did today."

Tobias sighs as he pulls off his jacket and hoodie. "You're right, but that doesn't make what you did okay."

"I know and I’m sorry." I walk over to him and wrap my arms around his waist. "I love you and I don't like when people say horrible things about you."

Tobias sighs and kisses me. "I love you too. We should get to bed. We have a long road ahead of us with everything going on."

Chapter Text

Chapter Thirteen:

I wake to tiny hands hitting my arm. I look over to see a head of blond curls bouncing as the little boy tries to see over the bed. I glance at the clock. It's only 2am.

"Buddy, what's wrong?" I ask moving to sit up so I can see him.

"I had an accident and I tried to take care of it. I’m so sorry." Theseus cries.

"Oh honey, it's okay." I gently pick him up not caring about his wet clothes. "Come on, we'll pick out new pajama and take a bath."

"I’m really sorry." Theseus sobs into my neck.

"Honey, it's okay. Accidents happen." I pick out a new set of pajamas from his dresser and a new pair of underwear for him. We'll need to get pull-ups for bedtime. I walk us back into our bathroom since we have the tub. "We have some cool bath toys. Do you want to pick out which ones we play with?"

I set Theseus down to inspect the toys while I start the bath to make sure it will be the perfect temperature.

Theseus carefully picks a few toys while I add a bubble bath mixture to the bath water so it can bubble while the bath fills up. I thank god for the Erudite having the resin cast that can get wet.

"Okay buddy, let's get you in the bath." I help him out of his wet pajamas before carefully lifting him to the toilet. "Do you need to go anymore?" I ask making sure he won't fall in. Another thing we need to buy.

After he uses the bathroom I wipe him and flush the toilet before putting him in the tub. I add in the toys he picked which were boats. We play together with the boats before I let him play alone and I start to wash his hair.

"Tris, are you my new mommy?" Theseus asks as he drives the little plastic boat around the tub.

"Why do ask that?" I ask as I carefully rinse out his hair. "You have a mommy. You share a mommy with Tobias."

"Yeah, but she's not like you." Theseus huffs as I start to condition his hair.

"What do you mean, angel?"

"You're nice and you don't yell and you give me lots of hugs and kisses, more than mommy does."

"Do you like that I give you hugs and kisses?"

"Yeah! I love it. It makes me feel so special."

"You are special. You're so very special to me and to Tobias."

"That's why I want you and Toby to be my new mommy and daddy." Theseus looks up at me before he smiles big and waves.

I turn and see Tobias leaning against the doorframe with a smile on his face. "How long have you been there?" I ask turning back to rinse out Theseus' conditioner.

"Not long." Tobias says moving to join me on the floor so he could play with Theseus. "But Theseus, I did hear you talking. I would love nothing more than to be your daddy." He gently cups Theseus' cheek so he looks at him. "But there's a lot of paperwork Tris and I have to sign and we have to get married before we can be your mommy and daddy. So it's going to take awhile for us to be your official mommy and daddy."

Theseus pouts as Tobias helps him stand then starts to help wash his body. "But I don't want to go back to mommy."

"You won't." Tobias promises as he helps Theseus rinse off completely before wrapping him in a towel and picking him up out of the tub. "How about we let Tris get her own shower then we can all cuddle in our bed?" Tobias grabs the change of clothes for Theseus and I remember that I am covered in pee.

Welcome to motherhood. I smile and quickly race over to my closet to grab a change of clothes before I race back. I take a quick shower before changing into new pajamas. I wrap our dirty pajamas in my towel so I can carry them to the washer. "Tobias, let me get his sheets off his bed then I'll cuddle up." I promise.

"I already did, my love." Tobias says stopping his story he was telling Theseus. "I was just waiting for the dirty clothes to be added to start it."

I smile and quickly walk to our hidden laundry set. I toss the dirty clothes in before I start it. I head back and climb in bed with my two boys.

"Are you sure you can't be my mommy and daddy now?" Theseus asks as he moves to my lap and cuddles into my chest since I’m sitting up against our headboard.

I brush through his wet curls and kiss his head feeling tears come to my eyes. "Oh baby." I sniffle and look at Tobias. "We will talk about it happening sooner, but until we sign those papers I don't think it's wise for you to call us that."

Theseus looks up at me with tears in his eyes. "I didn't mean to make you cry, Tris." He sniffles.

"Theseus, my angel, you didn't make me cry." I say brushing his cheeks with my thumb. "My sweet boy, I want nothing more than to be your mommy. It hurts my heart that I can't be right now. Not until we sign those papers."

Tobias gently rubs Theseus' back before brushing over my cheek. "Theseus, why don't you get some more sleep?"

Our little boy nods and settles against my chest absolutely content to fall back asleep on me. I hug him tight as I play with his hair absolutely in love with this little boy.

When I feel his breathing even out I look at Tobias who is reading on his phone. "I know I said I wanted it to be a real proposal." I say wiping my cheeks trying not to sob like a baby at how precious this boy is. "But he needs us, Tobias."

"I know." Tobias looks up from his phone and sighs. "I've been looking at how to elope. We can get legally married then when life settles we can have a wedding if you'd like."

I smile and nod. "That sounds perfect."

"They have an opening for tomorrow at lunch. We could head over to Candor, get married, sign the official adoption papers."

"Are we even able to adopt him yet?"

"While I was giving Loyalty a tour I asked. I knew the moment I saw him I wouldn't be able to give him away. The moment you were so gentle in helping him get on the couch I knew you wouldn't be able to either."

"You're right about that. What did Loyalty say?"

"She said the moment we get married as long as Evelyn is locked up or I testify against her about abandoning me and my sister then her parental rights would be terminated the moment we apply for custody."

I feel my heart soar as I hug my little boy. "So we could be his parents tomorrow?"

"If everything goes well with the paperwork." Tobias reaches over and brushes over my cheek. "Are you 100 percent sure you want to be married to me and raise this little boy with me?"

I nod and grin at him. "I want us to be a family. I want to be his mommy and I want to be your wife."

"You don't think it's too soon?" Tobias asks and I shake my head.

"Think about it this way, if we had both stayed in Abnegation we would be married the moment I turned 18 1/2. But we aren't there. We're Dauntless where age doesn't matter. I am so in love with you and I am more than ready to start this journey with you." I gently reach over and brush a tear off his cheek. "I know in your past no one has chosen you, but I choose you. I want you in my life and I want you to be my family forever."

Tobias doesn't answer instead he kisses me. I feel his love pouring out into the kiss as I reciprocate pushing my love for him in the kiss. I pull away when I feel Theseus shift around.

"Then tomorrow we will make it official. We have to have two witnesses to the marriage." Tobias says as he rubs Theseus' back.

"How about Zeke and Christina? Our best friends?" I offer and he nods.

"But is Christina going to let you elope with me?"

"She's going to have to if she wants to be there. If not I'll take Will."

"Okay, we'll tell them tomorrow at breakfast. Well, today at breakfast and then by lunch we'll be married and be his mommy and daddy."

I grin before frowning. "We'll have to tell my parents."

Tobias pales at this and tries to smile. "Yeah, your parents aren't going to be happy."

"My mom will." I take his hand and kiss his knuckles. "My dad probably won't, but he'll come around."

"I hope so." Tobias helps me lay down moving Theseus to between us. Tobias turns off the lamps before wrapping his strong arms around both of us to keep us safe as we sleep.

When I wake up my bed is empty but I hear them chatting in the bathroom. I smile and slowly get out of bed to sneak to the bathroom. I stand in the door watching Tobias carefully detangle Theseus' curls before making sure they look perfect. Theseus is all dressed up in a nice black button up and slacks.

I smile in the mirror when I catch Tobias' eye. "Who is this handsome little boy in my bathroom?" I ask walking over.

Theseus turns and grins at me. "It's me!" He laughs coming over to hug me tight.

"Hi baby!" I lift him up and spin a little. "Why are you so dressed up today?"

"Toby says you're gonna get married! Then said you have a surprise for me!" Theseus grins in my arms before hugging me tight around my neck.

"Well that sounds like a good day!" I hug him tight. "Do you want to help me pick out a pretty outfit to marry Toby in?"

Theseus shakes his head before cupping his mouth to whisper in my ear. "Toby said you're gonna shop with Chrissy after breakfast."

"Is that right? And what are you two going to do while I shop with her?"

"We gonna get rings with Zekey!" Theseus cheers and Tobias takes him from my arms making us both pout.

"Tris has to get dressed for breakfast and to go shopping. She can't go in her pajamas." Tobias says trying to stop our pouts.

I give my boys both kisses before heading to my closet to get changed. I pull on a pair of black jeans and a dark red shirt before pulling on my sneakers. I head downstairs to see Tobias holding Theseus in his arms swaying back and forth talking about something quiet.

"Hello again, my boys." I say kissing both their cheeks. Tobias hands me my phone, wallet, and keys and we walk out of the unit.

"I can't wait for my surprise." Theseus grins as he leans on Tobias' shoulder lazily tracing the small black tendrils that curl up over Tobias' neck.

We talk about various things as we walk to the cafeteria. When we get there the booster seat is still in its spot from dinner. Tobias gently sets Theseus in his booster seat.

I sit and grab him a plate of fruit and waffles before grabbing my own plate.

"Dang Tris, got that mom thing down already?" Uriah teases and I smile at him.

"She not my mommy yet." Theseus pouts as he pokes at his fruit.

I brush over his head and kiss his curls. "But I can't wait to be." He whisper to him which causes him to smile and continue eating.  "But, Four and I have an announcement."

Tobias smiles at me as the table stares at us. "Tris and I decided to get eloped today before lunch."

"I’m sorry?" Christina shouts staring at us. "She's too young! You two haven't been together for that long!"

I stare at her before looking down at Theseus. "Yeah, but this is my life." I say before I gently cover Theseus' ears. "And we can't formally adopt him without being married. With his mom still in custody it's the best time for us to adopt him so she can't take him back."

"So you're really going head first into this?" Zeke asks his eyes shifting between Tobias and I.

"Yes, Zeke. There's no one else I would ever want but her." Tobias says looking at me then down at Theseus. "And I don't want him to go somewhere where they could hurt him again. Hell, if I could get my sister I would."

I wouldn't be opposed to trying to get his sister either. I reach over and rub his back. "It's the best move for us right now. And we were hoping for your approval because we need two witnesses." I say looking at Christina. "We wanted at least our best friends there."

"Well, you're crazy if you think we aren't coming." Christina says earning a few cheers from the table.

"Yeah, all of us are coming, idiots." Uriah says crossing his arms.

"That's not nice word." Theseus speaks up and I can't help but giggle.

"He's right. But thank you." I say before looking to Christina. "And Four has already set time for us to go shopping to get a dress while the guys get the rings."

Christina grins and the table starts to liven with plans for the dresses and the rings. I sit silently just happy to know that in a few hours I'll be married to the man I love and we will have a son.

Chapter Text

Chapter Fourteen:

The girls and I went to the dress shop immediately after breakfast. They immediately threw me into white dress after white dress. None of them fit well for me. I don't like any of them.

"Okay stop!" I say holding up my hands as my friends hold white dresses. "I don't want to wear white when I elope. I will for the wedding when we get married, but I don't want to wear white today because after we're officially adopting Theseus." I say.

Christina immediately runs off shouting that she has the perfect dress. When she comes back and shoves it and me into the dressing room.

I carefully peel off the white gown before I pull on the new gown. When I look in the mirror I’m shocked. The bodice of the dress is maroon but it has large grey lace details that covers most of the maroon. It has a high illusion neck of maroon tulle. There's grey lace on my shoulders that transition the sheer maroon tulle into a less sheer organza maroon for the sleeves. That reach my wrists. They aren't tight sleeves, they have a nice small puff around my forearms before it gathers at the cuff. The skirt is mainly grey organza matching the lace, but there are pieces of maroon organza mixed in similar to my other dress I bought. It's perfect.

I step out of the dressing room and on to the podium. "It's perfect." I grin at the mirror as the girls all fawn over the dress.

"Keep that on!" Shauna races off and comes back with maroon chunky heels.

I put them on with the help of the girls and smile. It's perfect. I’m marrying Tobias today.

"Okay! To the salon we need to make you beautiful!" Christina cheers. We walk through Dauntless. I’m absolutely embarrassed to be wearing a full length gown I’m Dauntless because everyone is staring at me.

We make it to the salon and Christina starts to style my hair. She pulls it up into a teased bun on the back of my head that shows off the blonde and copper blend. She curls my bangs so they frame my face well. When she's done she does my make up.

She does everyone else's hair and makeup before sending everyone off one at a time to get into their date night dresses. When all the girls are ready I look at my phone to see a text from Tobias saying to meet him at Candor.

"I'll drive." Shauna offers and we go to the garage and sign a big van out of storage before Shauna drives us to Candor.

"Are you excited? nervous?" Mia asks me and I shake my head.

"No, I cannot picture myself with anyone else." I say grinning knowing that in less than an hour I'll be married and a mother of a toddler.

"I’m shocked you're getting married before me." Shauna pouts. "But I’m happy for you and Four. He deserves some good in his life."

"Tris, who is going to walk you down the aisle?" Christina asks and I stop.

I always pictured my dad walking me down the aisle when I got married. But he won't be there. I frown and look out the window. "I don't know. I always thought my dad would."

"Oh Tris." Marlene leans forward and puts her hand on my arm. "I'm sure one of the guys will if you ask."

"Yeah, I think if out of any of the guys I would pick Will. He's a lot like my own brother." I say as Shauna parks.

We get out and wait at the front of Candor for the guys to jump off the train. How they're going to do that with Theseus I’m not sure and the thought alone makes me worry.

"Beatrice?" I look at my name being called and see my mom and dad.

"Mom? Dad?" I race over and hug them tight. "What are you doing here?"

"Ah, that would be my doing." I look up to see Tobias get out of a parked car before getting Theseus out of a car seat. Both of them have changed into matching black suits with maroon button up shirts. "I went to Abnegation and talked to them."

I can't help but tear up knowing my parents are going to be here when I get married. "And you told them?"

"Yes, Beatrice." My dad says wrapping an arm around my waist gently. "I was shocked and upset when he told me that my little girl was getting married so young. But Four," my dad stops and looks at Tobias who nods at the name, "explained everything. I must say I'm appalled by his father's actions, but asked me not to act on my knowledge."

My mom kisses my temple and I can't help but smile at Tobias who just shyly holds Theseus in his arms. "And it's obvious how much this young man loves you. He did take quite a blow from your father. Are you sure you're okay?"

Tobias rubs his jaw and I see a slowly blooming bruise on it.

"Dad!" I protest pulling away from them so I can assess his jaw.

"You're my little girl!" My dad argues and I look at him.

"I’m fine, Tris." Tobias says before smiling at me. "You look beautiful."

I flush and look away from him at the crowd of loved ones who have gathered around to celebrate today with us.

"Hey Four!" Zeke calls from a calls as he walks over from the third card he just parked. "I think we got the right nerd, but not really sure."

I raise my eyebrow before the car door opens and Caleb climbs out. This day could not be better.

"Beatrice?" Caleb asks before spotting our parents. "Mom? Dad? What's going on?"

"Your sister is eloping." My mom says as she moves to stand between Caleb and Tobias. "Isn't this exciting?"

"Eloping? You're sixteen!" Caleb shouts and I roll my eyes as Theseus reaches out for me.

I gently take him in my arms and I kiss his forehead. "Hey buddy." I whisper before looking at my brother. "Yes, I’m eloping. I will explain what I can after."

"We should head inside." Tobias says checking his watch.

Everyone walks into Candor then we get directed to the correct area. The wait is gruelingly long as I bounce Theseus on my lap.

"You look pretty, Tris." He says as he plays with my fingers.

"You think so?" I ask and he nods excitedly. "Thank you buddy. I think you look very handsome."

Theseus beams at me before looking at Tobias. "I look just like Toby!"

"You do look just like me." Tobias grins kneeling down in front of me so he can be near our son. "Are you excited to see us get married?"

Theseus nods before requesting to be in Tobias' arms. Tobias lifts him up and hold him close. I can't help but smile at them.

"The Eaton party?" A Candor woman announces into the hall and I look at Tobias in shock that he would use his name.

"That's us." Tobias says before offering me his hand. "Ready?"

I nod and we get told that Tobias can go stand in front of the judge then our friends and Theseus can sit in the pews.

My dad stays with me and we get told that generic wedding music will play and my dad can walk me down the aisle to the man of my dreams.

It feels like the world is in fast forward and my dad slowly walks me down the aisle. When we reach Tobias, my dad kisses my cheek and shakes Tobias' hand before gently handing me off.

I don't listen to the ceremony I just stare into Tobias' eyes so happy to get to do this with him. We say the generic vows and exchange rings. I smile at the gunmetal wedding rings that are simple but still absolutely gorgeous. Finally we are announced and Tobias pulls me into a sweet kiss.

The license is signed and it's official. I am Mrs. Beatrice Prior-Eaton. We decided in the moment to hyphenate our last names so I can be Tris Eaton in private, but to the public he can be Four Prior.

Everyone cheers as we pull away from another kiss and Theseus immediately hops over to us. I scoop him up and spin around. "Are you ready for your surprise?"

Theseus nods his head and I look to Tobias. I’m not sure how much he told my family, but I don't care right now.

"We are going to be your official mommy and daddy." Tobias says brushing over Theseus' blond curls.

"Really?" My sweet boy wells up in tears as he looks at us. "You promise? Forever?"

"Forever." I promise kissing his forehead. "We have to sign some paperwork with Miss Loyalty then we get to go home."

Theseus grins and hugs me tight. "I love you mommy."

"I love you, too baby boy." I keep him tight in my arms as we leave the room with everyone.

"Adopting a child?" Caleb asks shaking his head. "You're too young. And who is this child? His child?"

"No, Caleb." I hiss as we wait for Loyalty to be ready for us. "This is his little brother and why do you care so much?"

"You're far too young to be with him."

"Caleb, enough. I am happy. Why are you so adamant about trying to ruin my day?"

"Because you're my little sister and what if he's just like this father?"

I feel Tobias tense next to me and I know that's a fear he has. I gently transfer Theseus into Tobias' arms before grabbing Caleb by the ear so I can drag him towards the elevator.

"Get out. Go back to Erudite." I hiss hitting the button.

"You can't be serious! Mom! Dad! She's being stupid." Caleb argues and I take a deep breath so I don't punch him in the face.

"Caleb, enough." I hiss and he shakes his head. "Get on that elevator and leave. I don't ever want to see you again."

"You're making a mistake. And when you realize that I'll be there to tell you I told you so." Caleb hisses.

I grab his shirt collar and slam him against the wall. "I swear to god if you ever talk about my husband like that again I will end you." I toss him into the elevator and walk off back to my family. "Anyone else want to make a smartass comment?"

"No, but Beatrice please calm down." My mother says putting her hand on my shoulder.

"Calm down?" I want to yell at her but I know I shouldn't. I’m not mad at her.

"Yes, please calm down." Tobias says his hand resting on my back. "We have little ears listening."

I huff before looking at Theseus who is shaking. "Oh baby." He gently cup his face but he flinches away from me. I pull back and sigh. "What's wrong, honey?"

"You mad." Theseus sniffles hiding in Tobias' neck.

"Oh buddy." Tobias says softly bouncing Theseus a little. "Mommy isn't mad at you. Your uncle Caleb was being very mean to mommy and daddy."

God he's the perfect father already. I reach out and brush over Theseus' back. "Daddy's right, Theseus. I’m not mad at you. I was just upset that my brother wasn't happy that I married your daddy and he wasn't happy I was going to be your mommy. But I'm really happy to be your mommy."

"Promise you not mad at me?" Theseus peeks his little face out to see me a little.

"I promise, my sweet boy. I would never be mad at you." I say and he launches into my arms. I hug him tight and kiss his head. "I love you very much."

"Love you mommy." Theseus whispers with a yawn.

"You can take a nap, Theseus. We just have to sign some boring papers then we can go home." I promise as I rock side to side with him.

The others start to talk but I ignore them as I hold this angel in my arms. I smile at Tobias who smiles back at me.

After a while the door opens and Loyalty is there with a smile on her face. "Well hello." She greets. "I believe we have some adoption paperwork to sign?"

"Yes." Tobias says holding up our marriage certificate.

"Perfect. You two come with me. Please leave Theseus out here." She says before walking back into her office.

"Let me take my soon to be grandson." My mom says softly and I carefully maneuver the sleeping toddler into her arms.

"I'll be right back." I whisper against his curls with a kiss before following Tobias into the office.

"I must admit I am shocked to see how fast you two got married and are deciding to adopt Theseus." Loyalty says as she starts to pull papers out of her filing cabinets.

"As we've told everyone today we are both extremely happy and Theseus is going to be safest with us." Tobias says as he offers me a chair before sitting down.

"I knew when we spoke about the idea of fostering him that I would have a hard time letting him go back either to Evelyn or to someone else." I say grabbing Tobias' hand. "That need to keep him near me at all times has only intensified since I've met him."

"You'll be a wonderful mother, Tris." Loyalty says as she puts papers on the clipboard. "However, I will let you know his father has stepped forward wanting to have visitation rights."

"I'm sorry?" I ask sitting up. "I thought this would be a closed adoption."

"Normally, in the case of Factionless children both parents are Factionless which warrants a closed adoption to protect the child from any Factionless members trying to kidnap him." Loyalty says. "But his father is a member of a faction. Which would mean normally custody would go straight to him. However he does not want full custody. He just wants visitation."

"Who is it?" Tobias asks sitting up.

"Ethan Black, a member of Abnegation." Loyalty says and I feel my jaw drop.

Ethan Black, the father of my childhood friend. He had an affair with Evelyn and had a son? What a selfish bastard! A selfish stupid bastard. A selfish bastard let that little boy live Factionless and then go into foster custody and get injured? No.

"No, no I refuse to let him near my son." I say standing up so I can pace. "No, that man let that innocent boy live in the Factionless, he let him go to a foster home where that evil woman broke his leg, and now that we are adopting him, he wants visitation. Did he ask for it with the foster family?"

Loyalty looks at me and shakes her head. "No, he did not. But he said that he was informed Theseus' brother, his son, was taking the boy and he wanted a relationship with both his sons."

I look to Tobias who is shocked and stunned. Then he breaks out into laughter. Absolutely unhinged laughter.

"Did I say something wrong?" Loyalty asks and I nod.

"Ethan Black is not Four's father." I say gently touching Tobias' shoulder. "Marcus Eaton is."

Loyalty frowns as she looks at her papers. "That is troublesome. I will have to investigate this and we will need to do a DNA test."

Tobias finally calms down and stares at her. "You said since my mother was arrested we could take custody of Theseus with no issue."

"That was before I learned his father is a faction member." Loyalty says getting up. "I’m sorry, but his parent rights are not terminated if he wishes to take Theseus in then Theseus would go to him."

"Have you confirmed that Theseus is his child? If you're DNA testing Four then you should DNA test Theseus. If Evelyn lied to Ethan Black about Four then she could have lied about Theseus." I interject moving back to my seat.

"I suppose you're correct. But if he is the father then he would have visitation rights." Loyalty says.

"Okay, then I want it in a contract." I say shocking both of them. "I want it in writing before we test the DNA. I want him to sign a document saying that if Theseus is his biological child then we will grant him visitation every other weekend. The visitation will be supervised and if Theseus is uncomfortable then he does not have to go."

"Those are quite the demands." Loyalty says before grabbing a big binder. "But you're not out of line with your demands. I'll get started on the documents. If he decides not to sign them then he will be given termination papers to sign and he can choose which."

"But what happens if Ethan Black is not that father?" Tobias asks and I look at him.

"It's pretty hard to say he isn't." I say and both look at me like I’m insane.

"I grew up next to the Black family. His daughter Susan looks just like me. Blond hair, light blue eyes, we looked like twins. More than my own brother and I look alike." I explain. "Theseus looks like we melded together. He could pass as our own biological child."

Tobias smiles at me and I know what he's thinking. He always liked seeing my different sides of my brain working.

"We will still do the DNA testing on both brothers after a contract is written up. If he signs the contract we will do the DNA testing. If he does not then you can sign adoption paperwork and he will be yours without DNA testing." Loyalty says before standing up. "I will need a few days to work out the paperwork and present it to Ethan Black."

I pull out my phone and look at my calendar. "I will be here in four days to attend the Candor ambassador meeting. I’m sure Four can sneak away during lunch. Does that give you enough time?"

"Yes, it should." Loyalty says before sighing and looking at Tobias and me. "I do apologize. I wish I could have had you sign adoption paperwork today. I've not see that boy happier than he is with you. When we placed him with Julianna, or even when I met him, he was shy reserved. He didn't like to look at anyone. But you two pulled him out of his shell immediately. I know he will do wonderfully in your care."

I smile and shake Loyalty's hand before looking at Tobias. We're both upset we don't get to rest easy tonight. We're both upset we didn't get this mess handled with. We walk out of the room with our heads high but our hearts low.

"So?" Christina asks as my mom passed Theseus back over to me.

"His father is making demands." I say rocking my little boy in my arms. "So we have a few more hoops before he's legally ours."

"Oh Beatrice." My dad hugs me and Theseus. "I might have been against this, but that's unfair. Is there anything I can do?"

I sigh and lean into my dad a little. "Unless you can tell Ethan Black to go away and leave us alone, no."

"Ethan Black?" My mother asks.

"How about we take you home and I'll explain there." Tobias says before turning to our friends. "Thank you for being here for this special day. Don't let this damper the fun. Why don't you guys head home and have fun?" Tobias holds out his points card since he has so much saved up from the two years of never spending his double salary. "Take my points. Celebrate."

Zeke takes his card and we all hug goodbye before the Dauntless members leave. Tobias, my parents, and I head out to the car and I carefully get Theseus in his car seat before sitting next to him not wanting to sit up front and be away from him.

My dad sits up front with Tobias and my mom sits in the back with me and Theseus. We ride silently towards Abnegation. When the roads get too bad Tobias parks the car and we get out to walk.

"Here, let me take him." Tobias says sensing my arms are tired.

"Thank you." I say softly as we walk through Abnegation. I’m sure it's a weird sight seeing two overly dressed up Dauntless members walking through Abnegation with two highly respected members. When we make it to my parents' house we walk in and I smile at how nothing has changed.

"Why don't you take him to Beatrice's old room?" My dad says and Tobias looks at me.

I smile and show him up the stairs then down the hall to my room. I flush as I open my childhood bedroom door. Even if it's bare and following the Abnegation standard I still had books and papers sprawled across my desk messily. My walls have holes in them from pushpins I would use to pin up papers during homework or studying.

"What are these from?" Tobias asks after he laid Theseus down on my bed. His hand brushes over the holes and I flush more.

"Studying." I say opening my desk drawer to show my pushpins. "I would pin up my homework and pace while I worked out the problems."

"That's insanely cute." Tobias says before laughing at how messy my desk is. "Oh god, did I sign up for a life of mess?"

"My thoughts aren't always neat." I say pulling him from the room. "Just don't go in my closet if you hate mess. You might never recover."

Tobias laughs as we walk down the stairs again. "What am I going to do with you?"

"Keep me forever." I grin at him before I hear someone clear their throat.

"Andrew, they're young and in love. Leave them alone." My mom says and I flush even more as we walk to the couch and sit down.

I make sure we aren't too close since my parents are watching. I look at Tobias who has turned completely serious. I catch his eye and he stares at me. "We should probably also take this time to tell them the other things."

"I was thinking the same thing." Tobias says before looking at my parents. "We'll start with Theseus. I’m sure you're wondering how he's my little brother when Marcus never had anymore children after my mother."

My dad and mom nod but my dad has a look on his face. A look that he knows more than he is showing he knows.

"I know nine years ago my mother passed away. Thank you both for the generosity you showed during the difficult time of me losing my mother." Tobias takes a deep breath. "I learned two years ago that my mother had faked her death. She left Abnegation and gave my sister up for adoption. She lived with the Factionless and when I was 16 and chose Dauntless she reached out to me to meet. She explained that she couldn't stand staying in the house with my father and thought he would never hurt me. It was a lie and I knew it was a lie. I ignored her and never saw her again. Until she was arrested last week by Dauntless. She showed up taking blame for a fight and then begged Tris and I to take in my little brother." He stops and looks at me.

I smile at him and gently brush over his arm before turning to my parents to continue the story. I tell them about the Erudite woman who broke Theseus' leg and how we just got foster custody of him yesterday. I explain about Ethan Black's demands and blatant lie that Tobias is Ethan Black's child. When we finish the story of Theseus I get up and start telling them about the conspiracy we have on why Evelyn got arrested and everything that's been going on with Erudite. By the time I finish ranting about the war looming over us I sit down and look at my parents.

"What I’m about to say does not leave this house." My dad starts after some time of silence. "I’m sure you know I’m originally from Erudite. Four, your mother is also from Erudite. We were actually very close friends, but she was closer with Jeanine. Now, Beatrice, you don't know this and we don't intend on telling Caleb, but he is not your biological brother." My dad sighs and looks down. "Jeanine had contacted me while your mother was five months pregnant with you. Jeanine said she had had a baby from an assault. She didn't want the baby to go into the foster system because then she would never know what happened to her little boy. She wanted to know where he was and to know he was okay, much like Four wants for his brother. After a lot of talking with your mother we decided to take him in. We actually had originally found out you were supposed to be a twin, but you absorbed your twin. We had already bought two of everything and we could provide. So we took him in."

I cover my mouth and stare at my parents. How could they hide this from us? From him? I stand up and walk to the kitchen to grab some water. He's the leader in charge of serums. He's got to know by now that he's her son. I lean against the counter as I sip my water trying to reign in my thoughts.

"Tris." I look to see Tobias behind me. "You okay?"

I nod and set my glass down. "I just need a minute." I say taking a deep breath. "Can you check on Theseus? We need to get lunch soon."

My mom walks into the kitchen as Tobias walks out. "Beatrice."

"Mom, please. I just need a minute." I run a hand over my hair and pull it out of the bun so I can runny hand through it.

"How about I make some lunch and then we can talk more later?" My mother offers.

I nod and sigh. "You don't happen to have any clothes I can borrow that aren't Abnegation clothes?"

My mom smiles and nods. "I'll be right back. The dress is beautiful, but I’m sure you would like something more comfortable." She heads up the stairs as Tobias comes back down with Theseus in his arms.

"Mommy!" Theseus grins and I can't help but smile as I take him in my arms.

"Hi, sweet boy." I grin as I hold him. "How was your nap?"

"Good." He says before he starts to wiggle. "Daddy I gotta potty."

Tobias immediately takes him and heads to the bathroom with him.

My mom comes down with some folded black clothing. "I kept my original Dauntless outfit when I transferred. I figured I may need it one day."

I kiss her cheek and head back up to my room to change out of the dress. I pull on the pants and flush. They're asymmetrical with pleather panels on the left leg that have chains dangling from them. The right leg is cut like a pair of shorts but is connected to the rest of the pant leg by a buckle on the front and back of my leg. The shirt is a tight red cropped top that stops way higher than I’m used to. I pull on the jacket and smile at the paint splatter indicating she wore it during many paintball games. I see she also put a pair of combat boots in my room for me to change to.

I try to pay away my flush before I walk out of the room and back downstairs.

"Beatrice!" My dad yells shocked by the outfit. "What in god's name are you wear? Go change."

"Andrew, I remember you liking that outfit." My mom teases as she kisses my cheek. "You look wonderful dear. Why don't you sit? Four, close your mouth before I close it for you."

Tobias immediately closes his mouth but his eyes don't leave me as I sit down next to him.

"I just needed to get out of that dress and mom said she kept her clothes." I explain as I try to avoid everyone's faces. "Dad, Four can tell you I don't wear this stuff normally. I don't even wear shorts outside of our unit."

Dad looks at me and huffs a little but says nothing. He serves himself food as he usually does then we go around the table. I get Theseus a plate of food before I get myself food.

"Now, Theseus, in Abnegation we pray before we eat." I tell him stopping him from immediately diving in to his food. We all connect hands and I can tell Tobias never did this as he's awkward with the connection.

After my father prays we eat our lunch and I feel like I’m being wrapped in a hug by my mother when I eat the food. The bland, boring food.

We don't speak much at the table. When lunch is finished I take everyone's plates and start to clean them.

"Beatrice, you need to go home." My dad says taking the sponge from me. "Go home with your family."

I nod and we say goodbye. Tobias gets my dress in the car as I carry Theseus. The ride home is quiet mulling over all the information. How am I supposed to go to Erudite tomorrow and possibly see my brother after today?

Chapter Text

Chapter Fifteen:

I close my eyes as the water of the shower beats my tired muscles. Tobias and I went to the gym this morning to help me work out nervous energy. We brought Theseus with us and he enjoyed trying to join our workout. It was really cute to see Tobias do push-ups with the little boy on his back and at some point he lifted Theseus and pretended the little boy was weights. It had me dying of laughter on the floor. I finish my shower and step out and wrap a fluffy towel around me. I dry off and dry my hair before I get dressed for the day.

I pull on my high waisted plum skinny cut dress pants. I tuck in my black turtle neck into my pants before pulling on my matching plum vest that has black lace lining the front edge where the buttons are. I tuck that into my pants before grabbing my cropped leather jacket and pull it on.

I pull my hair up into a ponytail and then do some smokey eyeliner and top it off with some plum lipgloss that just gives the smallest hint of color. I walk out of the room and grab my wool socks and combat boot heels. These have quickly turned into my favorite shoes as they give me more height but don't limit my movement. I walk downstairs to see Tobias and Theseus at the door.

Theseus has on a bright lime green shirt that has black paint splatter on it tucked into his black jeans. He's on his crutches chasing Tobias around. Tobias is wearing his usual black shirt and black jeans and the biggest smile on his face.

"What are you boys doing?" I ask raising my eyebrow at them.

"Testing out the crutches, right Thee?" Tobias asks the nickname started last night with Uriah and it's stuck.

"Yeah! So I can go to daycare and still play!" Theseus grins as he comes over to me. "You look pretty, Tris."

We had to have a long hard conversation after dinner letting him know we had to postpone him calling us mommy and daddy until the papers are signed. It was emotional and it ripped out my heart, but he understood.

"Thank you buddy." I smile as I kneel down. "Are you going to be okay at daycare?"

Theseus nods before he heads to the couch to grab the bear Tobias bought him. "I’m gonna bring Trissy with me so I can be brave."

"Yeah?" My heart melts as he drops his crutches and hops over to me on one foot. I pull him into a big hug and kiss his curls. "If you ever need me or Toby you let the daycare know and we will do our best to come get you, okay?" That nickname has also been sticking with me.

Theseus nods and Tobias brings his crutches over. I grab my backpack and we head out of the unit but when we get to the stairs Tobias scoops Theseus up and puts him on his shoulders as we walk to the daycare together.

When we get there Tobias sets Theseus down and gives him a kiss on the forehead. "Okay buddy, I have to go to work and Tris has to go to Erudite. If you need us just tell the teacher and I'll be here as fast as I can." He says brushing the blond curls from his face.

I kneel down too and pull Theseus into a hug. "You listen to all the rules and I should be home by lunch time. Okay?"

Theseus nods and gives us both sloppy kisses to our cheeks. "Love you!" He grins before walking off to go make friends.

The teacher comes up and we let her know about his leg and bear. We had come over after breakfast to talk to her about his history a little and get him enrolled.

Tobias and I walk towards the train platform hand in hand. "If you need anything I’m a call away." Tobias reminds me and I nod.

"I'll be fine. Hopefully." I sigh as we stop outside as the snow starts to sprinkle down and stink in his dark hair. "I love you mister Prior." I grin.

"And I love you Mrs Four." He chuckles at how stupid we sound before he leans down and kisses me. "I gotta go. I'll see you at lunch. I'll grab Thee from daycare."

I nod and watch him leave. Before turning to Will and Verily. Will is wearing a maroon crew neck tucked into his black pants. He has a black vest over it and a matching maroon leather jacket. Verily is wearing plum pants with a black turtle neck under a plum corset jacket type deal. It really makes her warm umber skin really stand out.

The train approaches and we quickly run and hop on. "Okay, so Erudite is trying to get ahold of our fear simulation results. We will not be turning them over to them. We will be getting new infirmary equipment and better training for our doctors and nurses." I say and they nod.

We're silent for the rest of the ride before we reach Erudite. We all jump out and run a few steps to keep our balance. We walk with our heads held high watching the other ambassadors and leaders walk into the faction. I spot my mom and two Abnegation members I can't remember then I spot Summer and the Amity ambassadors. I offer a small wave to my mother before someone clears their throat.

"Hello." Cara says staring at her clipboard. "We will be meeting with each faction separately to go over concerns with each faction. Until then we have a conference room set up with refreshments." She finally looks up and I see a small smile on her face when she spots Will but it's disappears the moment we lock eyes.

Her and Athena guide everyone to a conference room that has small finger foods and drinks set up for us to enjoy. Will, Verily, and I grab a snack before sitting off to the side to go over some information.

We are the third faction to be called out of the room. We follow the two women to a separate room where Herman, the leader, is waiting.

"Tris, nice to see you again." Herman says shaking my hand before gesturing for us to sit. "Remind me your names again."

"I’m Will." Will says pulling out his tablet to start recording notes.

"I’m Verily." She says then dives into business. "I’m sure you're well aware of the growing need of better equipment in our infirmary."

"Ah, yes." Cara says her voice disdainful. "Your infirmary is up to date the last time we checked."

"Which was three years ago."

Will says sitting up folding his hands. "As I’m sure you remember our parents coming home constantly talking about new advances. New X-ray machines and medicine. A new way for casts to be done."

"Yes, Will, I remember." Cara shifts in her chair.

"Then I’m sure you recall those conversation and new discoveries happening two years ago as well as last year. Our machines are constantly breaking down and eventually we end up having to throw out equipment due to our own intelligence team being unable to fix it and you refusing to send technicians." I look at my notes from the doctor's and nurses. "It also seems our nurses are being taught an outdated method for IVs. This is evident when we send our nurses and doctors to the central hospital to aid. They are often sent back due to inexperience. What do you have to say about that?"

"Due to the brutish nature of your faction, it hasn't been an issue for you." Athena chimes in and I shake my head.

"But it has." I pull out records and pass them across the table. "These are records of my own injuries I acquired from a fight during initiation. A broken nose, a concussion, numerous fractured ribs, and a fractured occipital bone. I was unconscious for hours and it took weeks to heal the injuries. When I went to the hospital to ask how long a recovery from these injuries would be if I had been in the hospital the doctors I consulted said two days." I say raising my eyebrow at them. "So why are we not getting the same equipment and medicine as the hospital?"

"Your leaders have denied it." Athena practically hisses at me.

"And yet here I am, a leader of my faction, asking for these changes. Can I expect that they will be made sooner rather than later?" I ask tilting my head.

"We will see what we can provide." Herman chooses his words carefully and I shake my head.

"No, you will provide us the same equipment and medicine as the hospital is provided. We are the soldiers of this city and we protect everyone. There are more and more Factionless fights every day." Will starts. "They are injuring our soldiers and as more and more are in the infirmary for days and weeks instead of hours it is leaving our streets and factions open to attach from the Factionless."

"How would you like it if on the way to school your children got injured because there was a Factionless attack and no Dauntless soldiers were there because they're in our infirmary?" Verily speaks up.

"Send them to the hospital." Cara scoffs.

"You have an infirmary here, do you not?" I ask and when she nods I continue. "Do you send all your injured people to the hospital instead of treating them here?"

"No, we have the medicine and technology here." Athena cuts in.

"Then why would we send our people to the hospital when we are supposed to have the medicine and technology to be able to handle injuries? Do you also withhold medicine and technology from other factions? If you do I will gladly bring this up at the council meeting where your council representative is my own brother and my parents sit on the Abnegation side? Do you think they would happily allow us to pull soldiers from the streets for days or weeks at a time to heal injuries?"

The three huddle together and whisper quietly for a moment before sitting back. "Tris, we will have our technicians there next week and our chief doctor will make sure your staff has all the new medication and training you require." Herman says finally. I smile and thank him. "Though we require you send the data from the fear simulations to us."

"Does it help with medical needs?" Will asks immediately. "Because of it doesn't then the data is none of your concern."

"We would like to make the simulation work better." Cara snips.

"As someone who underwent the fear simulation multiple times as all Dauntless members, I can assure you the simulation serum works just fine." Will snaps back. "If you wish to make it better then you have testing facilities here where you can work on it with your own data."

"But we aren't Dauntless." Athena adds in.

"And most people going under truth serum aren't Candor. Still works on them. And if it doesn't work on you then there's something you can improve." Verily snaps.

We're dismissed and I relax as we exit the room. I feel Will physically relax as we walk away from the room. "We did well." I smile at them. "Definitely picked you two well."

They both smile as we exit the building. We hop on the train and compare notes on our way back. When we hop off and stretch my body a little. "After lunch please type up reports on how you think the conversation went as well as your own personal notes so I can add them to the file." I say before letting them head off to lunch early.

I head to my office and start to type up my own report for Max letting him know that Erudite will be by next week to update our equipment. I send an email to Herman requesting for specific dates so I can make sure they are not left unattended in my faction. I will be there watching them update the equipment. I'll need to make sure Tobias and I triple check the fear landscape room to keep it locked and the data encrypted away from Erudite's prying eyes.

When I finish up I look at the clock and head to lunch. When I get there I see my table full of my friends, but my eyes go directly to my husband and Theseus. I walk up behind them and cover Theseus' eyes.

When I uncover them he beams up at me with a giant smile. "Tris!"

"Hey buddy!" I kiss his head and sit down so I can grab food. "How was daycare?"

"Really good!" Theseus smiles and starts to tell me all about his new friends Stellar, Racer, and Arlen.

"Wow, sounds like you had a lot of fun!" I smile and he nods like his head is going to come off his neck. "How's your leg feeling?"

"It not bad." He shrugs before shoveling Mac and cheese into his mouth.

"So, how was Erudite?" Marlene asks and I know she's asking because she's a nurse and already tired of learning on broken equipment.

"Really well." I grin and look at Will. "Will is definitely a natural ambassador. But that may also just be because he was arguing with his sister."

"God, Cara was such a-" I glare at him and the curse stops before he can say it. "Cara is really mean and definitely not happy I’m friends with Tris. But god Tris is really scary. She did so much research."

"Like what?" Shauna asks and I shrug.

"I took my medical file to the hospital last week asking how fast someone would heal from my injuries from my fight with Peter at the hospital. I was unconscious for hours and it took weeks to heal. The doctors I spoke to said I would have been completely healed in two days with the new medicine they have."

"Wait, how bad did he get you?" Uriah asks and I poke at my food.

"He gave me a concussion, broken nose, fractured ribs, and a fractured occipital bone. That's why I had such a nasty looking face for a few days." I sigh the ache in my nose a reminder of the break.

"And Four just let it happen?" Zeke asks and I try to cover my laugh with a cough but everyone catches it. "What?"

"Four walked out during my fight." I smile at him and he shrugs.

"If I didn't he would have been black and blue like Drew was mysteriously after simulation training." Tobias smirks and I roll my eyes.

"My hero." I tease.

"Wait, why didn't you just concede?" Mia asks and I raise my eyebrow at her.

"Oh, I did that!" Christina chimes in. "And Eric decided to have me hang over the chasm for five minutes. After I fought Molly."

"Damn, bet Eric was glad those weren't the rules when you fought." Shauna laughs and I look at Tobias.

I knew he ranked first and shared initiation with Eric, but they fought? "I didn't know they fought in initiation." I say before a hand on my arm catches my attention. I look down at Theseus and he looks at me.

"Tris, can I have cake please?" He asks and I grab him a tiny slice. "Thank you!"

"Yeah, last day of fights it was the most anticipated fight of initiation." Mia grins looking at Tobias. "It was so satisfying to see him go down then land in the infirmary with a broken nose."

We finish up lunch and Tobias and I take Theseus to daycare with the promise to collect him before dinner. I head back to my office and continue on my report on the meeting today. I keep working until an email comes across my computer.

Beatrice,

I don't know if you know this but I just learned something horrible. Please call me when you have the time.

Love,

Caleb

I grab my phone and dial his number he provided in the email. It rings once before the call connects.

"Caleb, are you alright?" I ask sitting back in my chair.

"No!" His voice is frazzled as I hear him combing through his hair. "Mom and dad lied to us. They aren't my parents."

"Caleb, calm down."

"Calm down? Calm down? The people who raised me are not my biological parents!"

"Hey! They may not be your biological parents but they still raised you. They cared for you and loved you and still love you. Who cares what biology says. You're my brother whether you like it or not."

"You knew? You knew and didn't tell me?"

"I found out yesterday, Caleb. Okay? They asked me not to say anything because they knew you would freak out like you are now."

"How can I not freak out? My mother is Jeanine! My mother is trying get you killed!"

"Woah, woah slow down. What are you talking about?"

"She hates you now more than ever. That's why she wanted the data from Dauntless. She wants to control you. It's being made to put anyone in a simulation and think they're in a war and shooting people. She plans to use it to use Dauntless to attack Abnegation."

"Caleb, deep breath. Okay? I won't let her get that information. Okay? Can you stall the serum?"

"I’m doing my best."

"Okay, hey, talk to mom and dad. Okay? Make an excuse to get to them. Tell them I sent you and to tell you everything."

"O-okay."

"Caleb, I’m going to be okay."

"Promise me you'll be okay."

"I promise, Caleb. I was trained for this, remember? I’m a soldier."

"Yeah, okay. I love you, Beatrice. I’m so sorry for how I acted. I’m really happy you found your person and you're making your own family. It just scared me because of all that I see going on here."

"I know. It's okay. All is forgiven."

We hang up and I run my hands down my pants. This is a big mess we need to stop before it starts.

Chapter Text

Chapter Sixteen:

After the call I had to stop myself from rushing out of the office and to Tobias. We can brainstorm a solution later. My brother could be killed for trying to go against Jeanine. When lunch time hits I rush out of my office and to the daycare so I can hold my little boy. Theseus always makes things so much better.

"Tris!" Theseus hurries over to me after I sign him out.

"Hey buddy." I smile scooping him up into my arms so I can hug him. "Did you have fun?"

Theseus nods and starts to tell me all about the rest of his day as I walk towards the cafeteria. Tobias joins us on the path and we all talk. When we make it to the table I set Theseus in his booster seat and grab him a plate of food. Dinner rushes by and when we are finally in our unit and Theseus is down for the night I finally let my anxiety loose.

I pace in the living room as I try to figure out how I can know if Caleb is safe. How can I know if my parents are safe? I chew on my thumb nail milling over everything Caleb said.

"Tris?" I look up to see Tobias standing at the stairs. "Okay, something is obviously bothering you. What's wrong?"

I look at him and sigh as I sit down and cover my head. "Caleb called me. He found out and then he was freaking out then started to talk about how Jeanine wanted me dead, specifically me dead. And she wants to control me. So I told him to sneak out and go to my parents because they can keep him safe. But I don't know if he's safe. I don't know if my parents are safe." I get off the couch and start to pace again. "And I know I shouldn't but I can't help but think bad things too. Like what if he's playing me? What if he already knew and they got suspicious of us and this was their way in on what we know?"

Tobias wraps me in his arms and holds me tight. "You can't tear yourself apart like this."

"This is my family, Tobias. They could be in danger because I told him to go there and talk to them."

"Let me call Zeke, Uri, and Will. We'll tell Will and Zeke can pull footage. I-"

My phone rings and I stare at the unknown number. Something is wrong. Something is very wrong.

"Hello?" I ask as I hold the phone to my ear.

"Beatrice, Beatrice, Beatrice." The voice tsks. "Your poor parents."

"What did you do? Who are you?" I demand grabbing my shoes.

"You better hurry if you want to say goodbye." The line cuts and I drop my phone.

"Tris?" Tobias grabs my phone from the floor. "Hey, what happened?"

"I have to go. Something happened with my parents." My voice shakes as I struggle to get my boots tied. "I have to go save them."

I hear Tobias mutter a curse before grabbing something from the coffee table. "I'll have Zeke meet you at the garage. Take my gun. If you need to bring them here do it." His Four mask is on directing me through my actions.

I take his gun and tuck it in my waistband. I race out of the unit and down to the garage. When I get there Zeke is already there with Uri and Will, everyone is armed.

"Get in." Zeke commands and we all climb in the hummer. "Four said your parents are in danger?"

I nod as Zeke starts to speed. "I got a call from Caleb and I sent him to my parents but then I got a call saying I should hurry if I want to say goodbye to my parents." I bounce my leg as I try to keep breathing.

"Okay, we're going to drive in then we'll walk to your house." Zeke plans out as he speeds through the city. "Tris you take point and we'll flank. Will, your head is on a swivel behind us got it?"

Zeke parks two blocks away from my house. We climb out and start running. I have my gun up ready to shoot any threat.

When we get to my parents' house I see the door open and blood on the steps. No. No! I race in gun up ready to shoot if I need to.

I hear a rustle and I turn but stop short seeing my mom on the floor doing CPR on my dad.

"Mom? Mom what happened?" I ask immediately dropping to her side.

"Caleb came." She huffs so I take over. "He- he said he knew and asked for the plan. I didn't feel right telling him. He wasn't. He wasn't right. He kept asking insisting. When I told him to leave he refused. Your father tried to get him to leave, but Caleb injected him with something."

"Will!" I shout and Will immediately runs in. "You know more than I do."

Will immediately looks over my dad as I continue CPR. "What color was the serum?" He asks his fingers immediately finding the needle mark on my dad's neck.

"It was black." My mom's voice waivers as Zeke comes in and immediately pulls her into his arms.

"Black? Not grey?" Will leans down and listens to my dad. "He's breathing but it's shallow. Uri, pull the hummer up." Will commands. "We need to get him to the hospital. Tris stop chest compressions."

I stop and finally see my mom crying into Zeke. "Mom."

"What's going to happen to him?" My mom asks her hands shaking as she grips my father's. "I can't lose him."

"He was injected with a banned serum. I-I can't remember what it does. But the faster we get to the hospital the faster we can save him." Will says as he lifts my father into his arms. "Let's go."

I follow them out of the house my head on a swivel ready to shoot anyone who hurts my family. We get in the hummer and Uri speeds to the hospital.

The world feels like it's in slow motion as my dad is taken behind locked doors by several nurses and doctors. My dad who was always so kind and gentle. My dad who was always there. He made it a point to be at every event the school had. He wanted to be present even as a council member.

"Tris." I turn to see Zeke next to me holding his phone. "Four wants to talk to you."

I sniffle and wipe my tears as I take the phone and walk away from the group for privacy.

"Tris, what happened?" Tobias asks worry thick in his voice.

I take a deep breath and try to blink away my tears. "Caleb showed up to my parents. He-he asked about everything but my mom didn't tell him. She didn't trust him. He kept asking and then and then he..." I start to cry as my body gives out and I fall to my knees. "He injected my dad with something. It was black and my mom was doing CPR."

"Shit. I’m on the way." Tobias says and I hear him running around. "I’m calling Christina to watch Theseus, Tris I need you to breathe."

"I can't lose him. I can't." I cry curling in on myself. "I can't lose my daddy."

"Tris, breathe." I hear Tobias try to command but I can't.

I can't breathe. I could lose my father. I could lose my loving caring father. The man who walked me down the aisle yesterday. The man who raised me. I can't lose him.

"BEATRICE GRACE!" I jump at the yell of my name through the phone. "Breathe dammit." I take a deep breath. "Again." I take another one. "Good, get up off the floor. Wipe your tears. You're Dauntless. You're Six, remember? You're my Six right?"

"R-right." I sniffle wiping my cheeks.

"Put on a brave face for me. Your mom needs you right now. March back over to her, give the phone to Zeke and you sit with her." Tobias commands as a car roars alive.

I wipe my face again and force myself up on my feet. I stumble over to my family and hand the phone over before sitting with my mom.

My mom immediately wraps me in her arms and just holds me. "He's strong, Beatrice. He's going to be okay."

I nod and try to take another deep breath. "It's dad. He's going to be okay." I tightly hold on to her hand trying to be brave. Trying to be Six. But it's hard. It's so hard.

I don't know how long it takes but soon Tobias is kneeling in front of me holding my hands. "Hey, it's okay. The hospital has the best doctors." He says.

It feels like forever before the doors open and a doctor walks out and straight to us. "Family of Andrew Prior?"

"Yes." My mom says standing up.

"This is really a conversation for just the family." The doctor says looking at me and Tobias.

"This is my daughter and her husband. Please, tell me how my husband is." My mom fiddles with her sweater nervously.

The doctor nods and pulls out a tablet. "We're still working on identifying the serum he was injected with. It is not in any of our databases." The doctor sighs.

"Will said it's a banned serum." I speak up as I stand chewing my lip.

"That would make sense. It put Andrew in a comatose state. We have him stable, but his heart rate is slow. We are running tests and keeping a very close eye on him." The doctor says looking up. "Has he had any heart attacks or falls recently?"

"He fell two weeks ago. But the doctor cleared him. They said it had just been a moment of clumsiness." My mom says tucking a stray piece of hair behind her ear.

The doctor nods and sighs. "We are going to keep him in a private suite and try to identify the serum. I’m afraid because of his condition we cannot allow visitors."

"Can we see him? Please?" I ask and the doctor shakes his head.

"No, with his condition even if he is stable I need the room to only be medical staff." The doctor says.

"His room will be locked down?" Tobias asks and the doctor nods. "Only accessible by doctors?"

"Yes, why?" The doctor questions.

"He was attacked and he is a member of the council. He is also the father of my wife. I would rather not have anyone try to break into his room and finish the job." Tobias says his arms tight around me.

"I understand. If it would bring you comfort we have Dauntless guards staffed here for when we get patients who were in fights. We can have them posted at the door." The doctor says and Tobias nods. "I recommend you all get some rest. If his condition changes I will reach out. I will let you know the moment he is allowed guests."

My mom holds her head up high and nods. "Thank you doctor."  When the doctor leaves she sinks down into the chair and folds her hands in her lap. "You two should get home to your little boy."

"I’m not leaving you, mom." I say sitting next to her. "You can't just stay here."

"I can't go home, Beatrice." My mom brushes over my cheek when as she looks at me. "You have a little boy who needs you home with him."

"Stay with us." Tobias says kneeling in front of my mother. "You're right. It's not safe for you to return home but I don't think Tris will let you out of her sight. Come home with us and be surrounded by those who can support you through this."

My mom gently cups Tobias' face in her hand. "That is sweet, but I cannot impose on your house."

"Mom, it wouldn't be imposing." I say rubbing her back. "Please. I need to know you're safe."

My mom thinks silently for a moment before nodding. "Okay." She whispers patting my leg. "If you insist."

"I do." We stand and all of us rave the hospital and get in the hummer and go back to Dauntless.

I hold my mom's hand tightly in mine as we ride silently. I whisper soft prayers hoping that they get answered. I was never religious but god please save my father.

When we get to Dauntless all six of us go back to my unit where Christina is sitting on the couch with a very upset Theseus in her arms.

"Look! There's Tris and Four." She tries to sound excited but Theseus is sobbing.

"I WANT MY MOMMY!" Theseus screams into the couch obviously not hearing Christina.

I immediately race over and touch his back. "Theseus, baby." I say softly and he peeks up at me before launching into my arms. "I have you. I’m here."

"Mommy." He cries into my neck and I start to cry wishing I could be in his position crying out for my dad only for him to be there to hold me.

"I’m here, baby.  I’m here." I rub his back and watch as Tobias takes everyone to the dining room for a moment before returning.

"Theseus, buddy, are you okay?" Tobias asks rubbing his back.

"Had bad dream and you not here and I wanted my mommy but she gone!" Theseus cries into my neck his arms locked in a death grip around me.

"I’m here now, Theseus. I’m here." I say gently rocking him as I sit on the floor. "I’m here."

His cries slow and his breathing evens out as he falls asleep in my arms. I look at Tobias who brushes over my head and kisses my forehead.

"You're okay." He whispers and I shake my head. "You're right. You're not okay. But I need you to be brave. Okay?"

"I can't." I sniffle closing my eyes. "I can't be brave. My brother attacked my parents." I take a deep breath. "It's my worst fear. I sent him there. I told him to talk to them. He played me and I fell for it. I’m the reason my dad is in the hospital."

"Tris." Tobias starts but I shake my head.

"Don't." I stand up with Theseus in my arms and carefully carry him up to his room. I pull back his fluffy red blanket and lay him down before carefully pulling the blanket back up to his chin. I sit on his bed and just run my hand through his hair. "God, please. I don't pray often or at all anymore." I whisper watching my angel sleep. "You sent me this angel into my life. Please don't take my father back into yours." I lean down and kiss Theseus head. "God, please watch over my family. Give them the strength and bravery they need to face the day. Give them happiness when I can't."

I can't let my family suffer. I can't let my family get hurt because Jeanine wants me. It can't be my fault they get hurt.

I stand from Theseus' bed and walk out of the small bedroom. I walk to my own where my mother is and lean against the doorframe watching her sleep.

God, please give her her husband back. She's a selfless woman who has never asked for anything. She deserves a long happy life with my father. She's devoted herself to you. Please, god. Let her have her family with her.

I silently close the door and walk down the stairs to the living room where Tobias stands facing the door.

Please god, let him be happy. Protect him now more than ever. Protect him as he had prayed years ago. Save him from this heartache I’m about to create. Let him move forward and life a long happy life.

"I know what you're thinking." Tobias breaks the silence not turning to face me. "I saw it on your face. I know when you make a decision. But I’m not going to let you."

"Tobias, she wants me." I step closer and he finally turns to me. "I don't know why but she wants me. I can't let her kill my family when I can save them, save you."

"Save me?" Tobias lets out a wet laugh and I see the tears in his eyes. "Save your family? That little boy, our little boy was devastated when he had a bad dream and couldn't find you. You think handing yourself over to her is a good idea? That boy has already been abandoned by one mother are you going to abandon him too?"

"Are we talking about Theseus or you?" I ask and he shakes his head.

"If I have to handcuff you to me I will. You are not leaving. It's stupid and reckless."

"Tobias, my father is in the hospital in a coma. He could die and it's my fault."

"No, it's not. It's Caleb's fault. He turned on his family. He betrayed you and your parents. He made his choice."

"I have to do this."

"No, you don't."

"Tobias."

"No." His voice raises slightly before he rubs his face to catch any tears. "No, if you die I die too. Til death do us part. We're married. You're the love of my life. I’m not living without you."

"What about Theseus?"

"Yes, what about him? Huh? It's okay if you abandon him even if you're the one he cries out for, but I can't?"

I sit on the couch and drop my head into my hands.

"I heard you praying over him, Tris. Please, save your prayers. Stay with us and we will fight, together." Tobias sits next to me and wraps his arm around me. "I know you want to be selfless. I know you want to sacrifice yourself, but please. Please don't leave me. We have plans. We are going to adopt Theseus. We are going to have a wedding. You promised."

I’m silent for a moment my heart crushing in on itself. "How do I stop feeling guilty?"

Tobias sighs and leans on me his wet cheek presses into my shirt. "You don't. You get angry. You fight. You make it right. Only then will the guilt release from your heart."

I sit up and look at him. I climb on his lap and hide in his shoulder. How did life get so messy in just a few weeks? How did my life turn upside down?

"I have you." Tobias whispers his arms tight around my waist. "I have you."

I break. I sob into his shoulder grieving my life that was once carefree. Grieving my home that has been torn apart. The guilt crushes me as I hold his shirt tight in my hands.

I don't know how long he lets me cry. I don't know how long until my tears run out and I’m left hiccuping against him catching my breath.

"Tris." Tobias whispers and I sit back to face him. "Promise me you won't leave."

I can't leave him. I can't leave my mother. I can't leave our son. I can't leave. I nod and sniffle. "I promise."

"We will figure this out, I swear." Tobias whispers kissing my forehead. "Why don't you get some sleep?"

I nod and lay down on the couch. Tobias gets up and pushes the ottoman into the couch so it's a big rectangle. I shift as he grabs pillows and blankets before lying down with me squished between him and the back of the couch.

"Promise you'll be here when I wake up?" I ask and he nods offing a sad soft smile.

"I won't leave you so long as you don't leave me." Tobias promises kissing me softly as if his lips were never even really there.

Chapter Text

Chapter Seventeen:

It's been two weeks since my dad was attacked. I've been doing my best to continue working. It's been hard. Any time I’m not working my thoughts drift to my dad and my desire to run and end this grows. But then I look at my ring and I know I can't leave my family.

Tobias and I have moved into a bigger unit so my mom can have her own room. She protested against it, but was happy to know Tobias and I wouldn't be sleeping on the couch anymore. Theseus loves his new room too, he has his own bathroom. He also loves having my mom around. He liked daycare, but he loves spending time with my mom more.

We weren't able to move forward with DNA testing as Tobias and I refused to let Erudite have any information at all. We settled for visitation to be able to adopt Theseus. It hasn't been going well and I know soon we will petition for visitation to be revoked.

Behind closed doors Tobias, Will, Zeke, Uriah, my mom, and I have been trying to work on a plan to stop Erudite. Tonight it will go in to effect. We will go before the Abnegation council today, interrupting Jeanine's meeting, and provide all our evidence. Hopefully the council will listen and we will be able to have interrogations of the leaders and Jeanine and stop this before it continues.

"Tris!" My office door opens and I look up to see Christina. "Did you forget? We have a baby shower to attend!"

Right. Life moves on ignorant of the war brewing inside Erudite. I plaster on a smile and lock my computer before joining her. I lock my door before we start to head towards Zora and Kai's unit.

"I know they already announced they're having a girl, but they've been suspicious lately." Christina rambles on. "I think they're having surprise twins!"

I look at her trying to join in her excitement, but I couldn't be farther from excitement. "Yeah?"

"Come on, Tris. The doctors said no news is good news." Christina tries to cheer me up. But I just fall silent beside her.

When we make it to the unit the place is decorated to the nines. Tobias is huddled in the corner with the guys with Theseus on his lap, the green cast finally off his leg. My mother sits with Zora discussing something.

I want to be happy and I want to be excited, but there's too much on my plate right now. While Christina is distracted I sneak off to grab a drink of water. I slowly move to a corner and watch the party. Our friends are lively as if they don't have a care in the world. Even Zeke, Will, Uri, and Tobias smile and laugh like nothing is wrong. Like my father isn't in a coma.

I slowly move towards the door. I feel suffocated in here. Like the world is crushing down on me. Finally while everyone is distracted by a loud noise I sneak out. I'll apologize later when we finally explain what's going on. When the world is no longer on fire.

I find myself at the chasm, sitting on the damp rocks listening to the waterfall. What feels like an eternity has passed since I first sat here with Tobias learning his name, kissing him for the first time. But it wasn't an eternity, it was a month ago.

"Thought I would find you here." I look up to see Tobias standing at the passage. "Christina said she brought you to the party, but you seemed to have snuck off."

"How can I enjoy a party when the world is falling apart?" I pull my knees up. "Standing in that unit felt so suffocating. Watching everyone be so happy when I know the truth. I know the world is slowly crumbling in on itself."

Tobias sighs as he sits next to me and watches the waterfall with me. "Do you want to know how I was able to?" I nod. "These moments with our friends could end in the blink of an eye. We could lose everything. I don't want my last memories with my friends being sad or heavy. I want to be able to think of them, think of their faces and know we had fun. I want to relish the good memories. Someone very wise told me to do that."

"Who?" I look at him and he smiles at me.

"You, Tris. On our balcony when I was ranting about how my mom never loved me, you told me to look for the good memories. It is what let me heal enough to bring Theseus, our son, into my life."

"I don't feel very wise right now."

"You're sixteen, of course you aren't wise. Well, you're a smartass, but I guess that doesn't count."

"I thought my brother.. I thought Caleb loved me."

"I’m sure, deep down under his self hatred he does."

"He tried to kill my father."

"Then maybe he doesn't. What changes? What changes if you accept that he doesn't love you?"

"Everything."

"So, your brother doesn't love you that means I don't love you?"

"That's not what I mean."

"I understand it's hard. I know the weight you're carrying. I see it on those small shoulders of yours. I see you trying to carry the world. But you don't have to carry it all. You can share the burden."

"And bring everyone's mood down with me?"

"Tris, need I remind you again that we're married? It's in the vows. We support each other. Let me help. Let me in."

"I don't know how." I bury my face in my knees as tears start to fall down my cheeks.

"Start with something small. What's something you can trust me to worry about so you don't have to?" Tobias asks his hand coming up to rest on my shoulder where my Abnegation tattoo sits.

I take a few deep breaths trying to find something. Anything. "I don't know."

"How about, I worry about your mom and Theseus? Hmm? I take care of them. I'll keep them safe for you." Tobias offers and I nod.

"Okay." I sit up and wipe my face. "I want to be happy, Tobias. I do. I want to be able to celebrate and laugh."

"Let's start small. Let's go back to the party. You can stay with me and Theseus. He always makes you smile."

I smile at the thought of my little boy sitting on my lap talking about his adventures with my mom. "Okay."

We slowly make our way back to the party and the moment we walk through the door Theseus runs into my legs.

"Mommy!" I scoop up my son and hold him in my arms. "Where did you go?"

"I had to go think for a bit. I have a lot on my mind." I say before wiping off some frosting from his cheek. "Who gave you a cupcake?"

"Uncle Uri!" Theseus grins and I look over to see Uri pale.

"Have you eaten anything else?" I ask and Theseus nods.

"Yeah! Nana got me a cup of fruit and veggies and I ate two tiny sandwiches!" Theseus smiles.

"Then I’m sure that cupcake was well earned." I see Uri relax and I move to sit on the couch.

Tobias sits next to me and wraps his arm around my back keeping me close and grounded. Theseus starts to tell me about his adventures today with my mom and the stories she told about my family. I find myself smiling at him as his happiness is infectious.

The party continues and I don't pay attention to anything really. I tried, but any time I looked up away from Theseus, I felt the world closing in. When the party is over I carry my sleepy boy in my arms as my mom and Tobias walk with me back to our unit.

"Beatrice." My mom starts and I look at her. "I know it's hard dealing with your father in the hospital."

I stare at her as I stop walking. "I really don't want to talk about it."

"I just think you should speak to someone." My mom stops and looks at me. "I’m worried about you."

"I have her, Natalie." Tobias says stopping with us. "I already talked to her."

"Oh." My mom smiles softly. "Then I won't say anything."

We continue home and I carefully tuck Theseus into his bed. I sit in his room on his bed watching him sleep.

I look up when there's a soft knock on the doorframe. "Hey."

"Hey, we need to go." Tobias says stepping over to the bed to kneel down. "We need to stop that meetings."

I nod and get off the bed after kissing Theseus. "Promise me we'll come home."

"I promise." Tobias pulls me into his arms and holds me for a moment before we leave the unit and head to the garage.

"Are we really doing this?" Zeke asks leaning against the hummer.

"We need to." Tobias says looking at the group. "This isn't going to be easy, but we have the evidence."

I pull my hair up into a ponytail and sigh. "We need to be smart about this. If it comes down to it you all need to tell the council we dragged you into this. If they ask for interrogations I only want myself going through it."

"Woah, what?" Uriah asks shaking his head. "No, if we have to confess under truth serum we all will."

"This about who is on the Abnegation council. I’m not letting my husband go through that. I've seen those interrogations. I've seen truth serum work. I’m not putting you all through that pain." I huff crossing my arms. I’m not budging on this matter. "I’m serious, I think if need be, if I focus I can lie. I can lie about my divergence and keep us safe."

"Tris." Tobias starts but I stare at him. "Fine. We'll try it your way. But if they insist we are not fighting them on it. If they want us all under truth serum then we are going under truth serum."

I know I would never be able to stop the council if they decide to put everyone under truth serum. It just breaks my heart knowing it would mean Tobias has to speak the truths he's so carefully hidden for two year. I nod and get in the hummer in the front seat while Tobias drives.

It's a silent and tense drive to the Hub. We're all too nervous to speak up about the horrors that might come up. My only comforts through the anxiety are my thoughts about Theseus and Tobias' hand on my thigh. I know he mainly put it there to keep me from bouncing my leg, but I relish the warmth that radiates from it.

When Tobias parks we notice the blue car next to us. Jeanine is already here. Zeke pulls a knife out and starts to let the air out of the tires so they can't escape. When he stands he hands the knife to me.

"Heard you're scary with a knife." Zeke smiles and I carefully hide the blade on me before we walk in.

I guide everyone to the secret council room for private council meetings. The door is locked. Dammit.

"Here, scoot." Uriah bumps me out of the way before kneeling down. He messes with the lock before it clicks and he opens it. He stands and smiles as he walks in. "Oh! This isn't the bathroom!"

"What are you doing here?" Marcus asks immediately as we all walk in.

"This is a closed meeting, Beatrice. Even if it weren't these people wouldn't be allowed in." Jeanine, ever the teacher, offers a correction to my behavior.

I take a deep breath and take the USB drive from Will. I walk it over to Marcus and set it down in front of him. "Jeanine is conspiring to put Dauntless in a simulation and use them to attack Abnegation. They've already attacked my father."

"This is preposterous." I whip around and stare at the man who spoke up. The man who attacked my father. The man I once called brother.

"Preposterous? Preposterous that you would attack our father?" I ask stepping closer to him only for Tobias to grab my arm. I pull it away, but he grabs it again.

"He was not my father." Caleb hisses at me.

"He raised you! He cared for you when your own mother threw you away!" I scream, but Tobias finally picks me up and pulls me away.

"Stop, right now. You need to prove to them that this is serious not just you feuding with your brother. You need to be a leader or be quiet." Tobias hisses at me his Four mask on tight.

I glare at him and pull my arm away so I can turn and look at the leaders of Abnegation. "Apologies for my outburst. On the USB. You will find evidence. Data on the simulation serum that is a modified fear landscape serum. Data on the serum my father was given. Security footage and Dauntless data being passed to Erudite. The other Dauntless leaders bending to Jeanine's will."

"This sounds like an issue you need to take up with your head leader Max." Marcus says his eyes never leaving Tobias.

"Security footage shows my mother conspiring with a Dauntless leader who conspired with Jeanine. This attack is going to happen if we do not stop it." Tobias speaks up. "I've already warned you once Marcus and you did nothing. Here I am again with proof." Tobias stands up taller. "It would be foolish to ignore us again."

The Abnegation council turn and speak quietly together as Will, Zeke, and Uriah guard the door so Jeanine and Caleb cannot leave. It feels like an eternity before they turn back to us.

"We will need to place all of you under truth serum for interrogation. We will then see the evidence and do what we need to insure the safety of the city." Marcus speaks before looking at me. "How is your father doing?"

I look down and take a deep breath. I didn't tell anyone about the call I got this morning. I feel tears prick my eyes as I take a shaky break in. "He woke up this morning. He seems to have lost all his memories from the past 20 years. He believes he is still 16 and an Erudite dependent." My voice shakes as I look up at those who were supposed to be my father's friends. "They took away his most precious memories and the memories of my mother."

"I see." Jonah says bowing his head. "I’m sorry for this loss. He was a great man and a great friend."

"I will contact Jack Kang and we should have the truth serum here in an hour." Marcus speaks up before leaving the room.

I feel Tobias reach for me, but I pull away and move to sit down in a chair in a corner away from everyone. I pull out the knife Zeke gave me and fiddle with it.

"Hey." I look up to see Will kneeling next to me. "You okay?"

I nod my lips pulled into a thin line. "Yeah, just peachy. My dad lost all memory of me and my mother and the doctors say he won't get it back. I'm doing just fine, Will."

Will sighs and pats my arm gently. "If you ever need someone to talk to who isn't your scary husband, you know I’m always here for you."

I nod and he leaves me alone to stew. I know I should have told Tobias. I know I should tell my mom, but I can't break her heart like that. And I don't have the strength to lean on Tobias. Not now. I look back down to my knife and carefully poke my finger with the tip enjoying the prick from it.

The doors open and I stand putting my knife away as Jack Kang walks in with Nicholas. I shake their hands almost immediately as I've been working with them closely. "Jack, Nicholas a pleasure."

"Tris, don't lie." Jack smiles warmly at me like a father would. He's always been so kind. "These circumstances are rough and the accusations are horrendous. It is not a pleasure to put you through truth serum."

I nod before Jack pulls me into a hug. He holds me close before pulling back.

"I've come to see you as a daughter in the last month. I’m sorry to hear about your father. But I know if anyone is strong enough to help him, it's you." Jack whispers before he walks further into the room and starts to set up with Nicholas.

"What was that about?" Tobias asks and I jump not realizing he was at my side.

"He was empathizing for my dad." I say softly as I reach over to grab his hand. "I’m sorry."

Tobias looks at me before kissing my forehead. "Don't be. We'll talk later. Okay? But please stop shutting me out. I can't help if you won't let me."

I nod and move to wrap my arm around his waist to lean into him. "I'll try." I promise before Jack looks at me.

"Who will be going first?" He questions and I look to Abnegation.

"Jeanine will as she has the allegations against her." Marcus speaks up.

"I will do no such thing, Marcus." Jeanine speaks but Jonah motions for her to come forward.

When she doesn't Jonah points to Zeke and Tobias to grab her. They do and force her into the chair that Nicholas dragged to the center of the room. She fights and struggles, but it's pointless against two of the strongest Dauntless members.

Chapter Text

Chapter Eighteen

I stand with Tobias and Zeke off to the side as Nicholas holds Jeanine in place in her chair. Will and Uriah are flanking Caleb so he can't sneak out.

"If you need to take a minute just me know." Tobias whispers against my hair as he presses a gently kiss to my head.

"I want to hear everything she has to say." I clench my jaw as Jack administers the truth serum.

Jack and Nicholas step back as she goes slack barely able to sit up. I see the usual confusion on her face that I've grown accustom to while attending truth serum interrogations.

"Let's start with the baseline questions." Jack says after being handed a paper of her allegations. "What is your full name?"

"Jeanine Ann Matthews."

"What faction were you born to and which did you choose?"

"Erudite born and Erudite chosen."

"What are your parents' names?"

"Lucas Matthews and Haleigh Johnson-Matthews."

"Do you have any siblings?"

"Yes, one sister."

"What is your sister's name?"

"Evelyn Johnson."

I look to Tobias who stiffens at the name of his mother. This obviously was never brought to our attention. I gently wrap my arm around his waist to hold him.

"Do you have any children?"

"I have one son."

"What is his name?"

"Caleb Prior."

"Prior? Why not Matthews?"

"I was assaulted and that is why I was pregnant with him to begin with. I reached out to my childhood friend knowing he would take the boy. I didn't want him to go in the system and be lost. I would never know what would become of him."

"What is the name of the friend you gave your son to?"

"Andrew Prior and his whore wife Natalie."

Tobias wraps his arm around my shoulders and hold me tight as Zeke holds my hand. We found out over the past two weeks that Zeke's father was my mother's brother. He's become even more protective of me and my mother since then.

"Jeanine there is no need for name calling." Jack chastises her before he looks at the paper. "You've got quite a few allegations against you. Do you recalled hearing about Andrew Prior being attacked with a banned serum?"

"Yes, a modified memory serum stronger than before." She boasts as if she's proud of taking my father from me.

"Do you know who attacked Andrew Prior?"

"My son, Caleb Prior attacked him hoping it would drive Beatrice into our arms so we could experiment on her."

Jack looks over to me and I feel Tobias tighten his arm around me. "Did she ever go to you?"

"No, we failed in getting her to come to us."

"Did you craft a simulation serum with a plan to use it on the Dauntless as an attempt to attack Abnegation?"

"Yes." I hear the Abnegation members gasp, but I just feel relieved. It was real. It was going to happen and we stopped it.

"Did you convince the Dauntless leaders to join you in this plan?"

"Only two of them."

"Which two?"

"Max and Eric."

Tobias pulls away from me to make a phone call. Zeke pulls me close to him and holds me until Tobias returns to my side.

"Why were you wanting to do this? And why single out Tris?" Jack asks his eyes shooting over to me.

"She's the most powerful divergent we've seen. I wanted to weed them all out and then destroy them after I see what makes them tick."

I feel Tobias' arm tighten around me and I lean on his shoulder. She wanted to test on me like some rat.

"Jeanine, I ask everyone this when they go under truth serum. What is your biggest regret?"

Jeanine is silent for a moment. "Not being with Andrew when I had the chance. Not protecting my baby sister from her monster of an ex-husband. But I regret giving up my son the most." Tears fall down her cheeks as she is picked up by Nicholas and taken into a separate room. She was not given the antiserum.

"Caleb Prior." Jack's voice booms in the room. "It is your turn."

Uriah and Will wrestle him to the chair. I don't even recognize him anymore. His normally brown hair has been dyed blond. It's messy and he's messy from fighting against Will and Uriah. He used to be so neat. He used to make sure his hair laid perfectly in place and his clothes never got disheveled. I don't recognize the man in front of him. When the truth serum is injected his body slumps like Jeanine's.

"What is your name?" Jack asks his voice cold and I shiver having never heard him like this.

"Caleb Matthews." Caleb says proudly.

"Were you raised by that name?"

"No."

"What was the name you were raised with?"

"Caleb Prior."

The questioning continues but I feel my phone buzz. I excuse myself and walk into the hallway to answer the call.

"Tris, Tris where are you?" It's Evin. Her voice is shaking but she's trying to be brave.

"I’m at Candor. What's wrong?" I hear the doors open behind me and Tobias immediately wraps his arms around my waist to comfort me.

"They arrested Max and Eric. They took Evelyn from the holding cell." Evin says before I hear her pull away to tell someone it's me on the phone.

"Tris are you okay?" It's Eagle. "What is going on?"

"I need both of you to come to Candor. I will explain everything in person." I say before the doors open in front of me and I see Max and Eric being dragged in by large Dauntless men, Kai is included in that group.

"You bitch!" Eric tries to wrestle out of Kai's grip to get to me.

"Please arrive soon. Meet me at the private council room." I hang up and pull a stiff Tobias back into the room.

"I wanted to kill him. He always favored her over me. I feel so stupid never noticing before. How he would take care of her first and I was the after thought." Caleb spits out angrily practically snarling like the dog on the aptitude test.

"So you thought the serum would kill Andrew Prior?" Jack asks his eyes finding me again.

"Yes, when it didnt I planned to go to the hospital after this meeting to finish what I started." Caleb snarls again and I step back.

That's not my brother. That's not my caring sweet older brother who would help someone in need without a second thought. That's not the calculated brother who would chastise me when I took too long to react to someone needing help.

"Tris." Tobias whispers looking at me.

"I... I just need a minute." I turn and walk out of the room trying to catch my breath. I lean against a pillar my body suddenly too heavy to hold up on my own.

"Tris." Tobias is in front of me in an instant helping me sit down on the ground. "Hey, hey, Breathe. Breathe, baby."

I pull my knees up and Tobias helps me tuck my head between them. His lips press against my head as his hands brush up and down my arm.

"I’m here. I’m here." He whispers and I look up at him.

"My brother is gone." I cry my lip wobbling. "He was so caring and he would help anyone. He-he used to chastise me when I didn't help fast enough, when I wasn't selfless."

Tobias gently brushes away my tears kissing my forehead. "Tris, honey, those memories are what you need to hold on to. Okay? That, that isn't your brother. That is who he was supposed to be. If he had been raised by Jeanine Matthews that is how he would have turned out. Ruthless, mean, horrible. But instead he was lucky enough to get to share your parents. He was lucky to have those years raised by the two most selfless people in Abnegation. And while he was with them he was your brother."

I slam into his chest wanting to hide in his chest. "My family's broken." I sob tmtm body shaking completely as Tobias holds me. "My dad lost all his memories, my brother is dead."

"Your mom is alive and happily watching our wonderful perfect son." Tobias fills in his hand buried in my hair to keep me secured against him. "Your husband is right here and I won't let the world break your family anymore. I’m here and I’m going to keep you safe and keep your family safe I swear."

I look up at him and he gently brushes away my tears. He's right. Bad things have happened, but I have him. I have my mom. I have our son. I pull Tobias into a kiss and now realize how much I've distanced myself during these past two weeks.

When we part Tobias leans his forehead against mine. "You don't have to be alone. You don't have to carry this weight alone. I’m here. I'll help you carry it all." He promises holding me close to him.

He's right. I have more family than just my parents and my brother. I have him, I have our son, I have our friends, my cousins. I’m surrounded by love that I had pulled away from in an attempt to protect them. But I don't have to protect them alone.

Chapter Text

Chapter Nineteen:

After the confessions of Jeanine, Caleb, Eric, Evelyn, and Max the rest of us were pardoned from truth serum confessions as we knew very little compared to what was confessed. Evin, Eagle, and I gathered trusted Dauntless members and had them arrest traitors who had been named so they could be put to trial in hopes of uncovering every single undercover agent.

I sigh as I walk into our unit finally. It has been an extremely late night that has stretched into the morning. I see my mom laying on the couch curled up with Theseus, both of them sound asleep.

I smile as I walk over and kneel down next to them. I watch them sleep as Tobias heads to the kitchen to make breakfast. We ended up sticking around to witness all interrogations, the hardest one to watch was Evelyn's.

She admitted she had had seven children in total, but she only knew where two of them were Tobias and Theseus. She admitted that she had had a child before her choosing ceremony, Tobias shortly after her marriage to Marcus, a little boy two years after Tobias, Tobias' little sister, another little girl a few years later (Tobias would have been 13), Theseus, and just last year another little girl.

Tobias was asked after Evelyn's confessions if he wished to go under truth serum to testify against Marcus, but he refused. He didn't want to relive those horrible memories, and I don't blame him. Marcus will be made Factionless after what Evelyn confessed. He would be dead if Tobias had confessed.

I asked Jack afterwards if it were possible to find his siblings and connect them. He said he could only connect those who had turned 16 and already chosen their faction and passed their initiation, and only if they want to connect with Tobias. At least Tobias will know his brothers, hopefully. Jack promised that the moment the others turn 16 and pass their initiations he will connect Tobias with them if they so wish to connect with him.

I brush over Theseus' curls and kiss his forehead before pulling the blanket up to cover both my mom and Theseus. I stand up and head to the kitchen.

"You okay?" I ask leaning against the island counter. His shoulders are tense as he mixes dough together.

"Just anxious." Tobias says looking up at me. "He said he would let me know today if my brothers wish to meet me."

I carefully wrap my arms around his waist and look up at him. "I can't imagine them not wanting to meet you." I say pulling him down for a kiss. "But..."

"What?" Tobias asks as he continues to knead the dough with his hands.

"I have a theory of one of your brothers." I pull away and move to sit on the counter next to him. "Two years younger than you would make him my age. Caleb and I weren't the only non-twin siblings in Abnegation."

"Robert?" Tobias' nose scrunches at the idea. "Didn't he pick Amity?"

"He did, but thinking back, you two look a lot alike. He resembles Theseus too." I say brushing through his curls that have started to grow out. "You don't know your true aptitude. I think they're wrong. I think the strongest Divergent is you. You could easily meld into any faction. Well, maybe not Candor, but who can easily be Candor?"

"I cannot be happy go lucky Amity." Tobias scoffs out a laugh.

"I think, if you needed to hide in Amity you could pass off as their member. I think you're more peaceful in nature than you think."

Tobias rolls his eyes at me and kisses me before he starts to mix together a paste for the dough.

"What are these called again?" I ask watching him roll out the dough and spread the filling.

"Cinnamon rolls." Tobias smiles as he rolls the dough up before cutting off thick rolls of the log. "Why don't you go take a shower before Theseus realizes you're home and wont let you go?"

I pull Tobias into a kiss before hopping off the counter. I sneak upstairs and take a long hot shower letting the tired tense muscles in my back relax as all my anxieties flow down the drain. I get out and change into a pair of tight fit jogger sweatpants and a cropped black and maroon tie dye T-shirt. I slowly braid my wet hair into two French braids before I head out of my room.

The moment I step out of my bedroom I hear him. My sweet son screaming. I race downstairs looking around for him.

"Mommy is just in the shower." Tobias tries to comfort him as he rocks Theseus in the kitchen. "Buddy, it's okay. Mommy will be down soon I know you're scared. I know."

I immediately walk over and wrap my arm around Tobias' waist as my free hand goes to Theseus' curls. "Sweet boy, what has mommy's brave boy so upset?" I ask kissing his forehead.

Theseus immediately lunges from Tobias' arms into my own as he cries into me.

I rock side to side humming softly for my baby boy. "You're okay. Mommy is right here. You're safe." When he calms down to hiccups I gently set him on the island counter and stand in front of him. "Theseus, baby, what's wrong? Why are you so upset?"

"I waked up but you not here. Nana promised you be here." Theseus rubs his eyes with his little hands. "Had bad dream when you gone and nana promise you be here but you not here."

"I’m here now, sweetheart." I whisper kissing his head before hugging him tight. "I’m sorry you had a scary dream while I was gone. Can you take a deep breath for me?"

Theseus shakes his head and Tobias comes over. He gently takes Theseus' small hand and holds it against his chest. "Breathe with me, buddy. Copy daddy."

Theseus hiccups as he tries to copy Tobias' breathing. His little body is still shaking as his other hand grips me tight.

"You're doing so good." I praise kissing his head. "Do you feel daddy's heartbeat?" He nods. "Is it slow or fast?"

"It slow." Theseus sniffles trying his best to breathe.

"And what about mommy? Is my heartbeat fast or slow?" I ask pressing his other hand against my chest where my heart is.

"It slow." Theseus sniffles trying to take a deep breath.

"Can you try to make your heart slow like mommy and daddy?" I ask brushing over his tear stained cheek.

Theseus nods and we all take long slow breaths until my baby boy is finally calm. "I calm." Theseus says smiling at us like he didn't just have a panic attack.

"Yeah, good job calming down, buddy. I’m so proud of you." Tobias presses a kiss against Theseus' forehead. "Are you okay if I finish making breakfast?"

Theseus nods and holds out his hands for me to pick him up again. "I got mommy. I not scared no more."

I scoop him up and rock side to side with a smile. "I love you." I whisper against his curls before I look to the living room to see my mom awake on the couch. I gently brush across Tobias' back as I pass him. "Let's go check on Nana." I say and Tobias looks at me. I know he wants me to tell her about my dad, but I can't break her heart anymore than it already has been. Not yet.

I walk into the living room and plop on the couch next to her. "Hey, mom." I whisper looking at her. "How are you feeling?"

My mom fiddles with her grey sweater that I recognize as my father's. "Have you checked your phone today? Maybe they have some news." She sniffles trying to be brave.

I sigh and kiss Theseus' head. "Baby, can you go play in the sunroom with your toys? Or can you go help daddy?" I set the boy down and he runs off to the kitchen to help Tobias.

I carefully take my mom's hand in mine and take a deep breath. "They called me the day before yesterday." I start licking my lips. "He woke up-"

"That's good news! Let's go see him." My mother says getting off the couch, but I catch her and hold her.

"Mom, they said it was a modified memory serum. He doesn't.... he thinks he's 16 and still living in Erudite." I gently pull her back to the couch. "I, I didn't know how to tell you. I’m sorry. I just didn't want you to get hurt."

My mom forces a smile on her face and she pulls me into a hug. "Oh my brave daughter." She whispers into my hair. "My brave selfless daughter. I’m not mad or upset. I wish I had known to keep you safe, but I can't change the past. We can only move forward." She takes a deep breath and wipes her face as she pulls away from me.

I smile at her before turning when I hear Theseus call for me. I see him running into the living room with icing all over his mouth. "Mommy! Nana! Daddy made breakfast!" He announces before turning around and racing back.

"Daddy better have put some fruit on your plate!" I call after him before looking at my mom. "How about after breakfast we go visit dad?" But my body betrays me and I can't hide the yawn.

"You're exhausted. After breakfast I will take Theseus out and you and Four can rest." My mom says kissing my forehead before we stand. "We can visit him together after lunch."

I nod and we walk into the dining room where I see Theseus' plate is towered with fruit. I smile and drop a kiss to his head before sitting down next to Tobias. I lean against him as I start to eat my breakfast.

When we finish my mom tells Theseus she's going to take him to the park to play while Tobias and I get some rest. He went without a fight, but made sure he got extra hugs and kisses from us both.

"It's funny." Tobias finally starts up conversation as we clean up the dishes from breakfast.

"What's funny?" I ask as I put our leftovers in the fridge.

"Thee's ranking system. I think I've figured it out." Tobias smiles at me as he washes the dishes.

"Oh? And what's he ranking?"

"The things he loves. There's fruit, his uncles and aunts, cake, your mom, me, then I think you and the park are tied for first place."

I shake my head and laugh as I wrap my arms around his waist. "You're funny, Mister Prior-Eaton."

"Am I Misses Eaton?" Tobias picks me up and sets me on the counter. "I’m serious, I think your mom figured it out too. That's why she's taking him to the park. It's the only way he would have left you behind. He really does love you."

"And what about his brother?" I ask wrapping my arms around his shoulders my fingers tracing the black lines that curl up his neck.

"Hmm, I don't know." Tobias grins before pulling me into a kiss.

This kiss isn't like the others we shared. Yes, it's full of love and care, but under it. I feel the desire. Desire that makes my stomach jump. We haven't done anything since the game of Candor or Dauntless that ended early because of us taking custody of Theseus. We haven't had time nor the space.

Tobias kisses down my neck his hands on my waist pulling me to the edge of the counter. I wrap my legs around him and let my head fall back to give him more access.

"Tobias." My voice is barely there as I grip his hair. "I love you."

Tobias pulls back and in his eyes I see desire burning in the dark blue eyes making them almost black. "I love you." His face flushes as he pulls back. "I’m sorry. We should be resting."

I hop off the counter and wrap my arms around his waist. "Tobias, we haven't had a moment alone since we took in Theseus. I don't... I don't want to waste this moment. Please."

Tobias looks at me as if he's battling himself on what he wants and what he thinks I need. When he crashes his lips into mine I know what he wants has won the battle. He moans into the kiss as he pulls me closer so our hips meet.

I push my hands under his shirt wanting to feel his skin, needing to feel his skin on mine. I moan as he pulls away from my lips and he moves to kiss my neck again.

"God, you're short." He huffs picking me up in his arms so he doesn't have to bend over to kiss my neck. "I love you."

I smile and cup his face. "I love you. Take me to bed, make love to me Tobias." He kiss him and he moans into it his hands squeezing my butt.

He carries me up to our bedroom as I kiss his neck leaving hickies on his tanned skin. He kicks our door closed before tossing me on the bed.

I giggle as I land before I scramble to sit on the edge. I watch as he slowly pulls off his shirt. His body is beautifully sculpted and I smile at him. I get off the bed and immediately run my hands up his torso feeling the strong muscles. I pull him down into another heated kiss not able to get enough of him.

When we pull from the kiss to breathe I take off my cropped shirt. I bite my lip as I look down. I know I’m not much. I don't have a full figure. I've even bulked up more muscle so I look even more boyish.

"You're beautiful." Tobias whispers his hands finding my waist to pull me to his body.

I look up at him before we crash into each other again in a heated kiss. I can't get enough of him and he can't get enough of me. We devour each other before it slows and we make love for the first time. It aches and is uncomfortable at first. Him being so large and me being so small. But soon the ache dulls as he makes love to me. Eventually we collapse on the bed, naked, tired, but refreshed. He keeps me in his arms holding me tight as our breathing starts to slow down.

"Wow." Tobias whispers against my hair.

"Yeah." I smile tracing his side with my fingers. "That was amazing."

"We needed that." He sighs kissing my forehead.

"We did." I smile up at him and sigh. "We saved Dauntless." I say tracing shapes on his side.

"We did, you did." Tobias says softly kissing my forehead again. "I’m so proud of who you've grown into. From first jumper to worst initiate to number one and leader."

I smile at him before pulling him down into a loving kiss. "We should sleep we were up all night." I yawn stretching out before curling into his bare chest. The skin to skin contact is so nice. To finally be able to connect with Tobias on this level, to relax in such a vulnerable state. It lulls me to sleep almost immediately.

I don't know how long he lets me sleep but I wake up to him brushing through my hair.

"Tris, wake up." I groan and roll away from him wanting to stay in my bed. "Beatrice Grace Eaton, wake up. We have to go to lunch then go see your dad."

I open my eyes and look at him. He's showered and is sitting in just a towel on our bed. God, he's gorgeous.

"Little miss, no ma'am. Go shower. You have a little boy who is excited to see you at lunch." Tobias chuckles and pulls the blankets off my naked body.

I shiver as I get out of bed glaring at him. "Rude! I was warm!" I walk to the bathroom making sure to swing my hips a little. I stop at the door and look over my shoulder. "Sure you don't want to come shower with me?"

"I have to wash our sheet." Tobias says before his face pales as he looks at me.

"What?" I race into the bathroom to look in the mirror. I see dried blood down my thigh and then I see dozens of hickies on my body, but I know what caused him to pale. Two big hand shaped bruises on my hips that are slowly turning darker. I turn and see Tobias standing in the doorway behind me.

"I’m so sorry." His voice is thick and he won't look at me.

I walk over and take his hands in mine, it's almost a battle to hold his hands. He tries to pull away, but I quickly tighten my grip on his hands. "Tobias, you didn't do anything wrong. Not once did I ever tell you to stop. Not once did I feel uncomfortable or in pain."

"I made you bleed and I-" his voice cuts off as he pulls one hand away to brush over the bruise on my hip.

"You passionately made love to me like I asked you to. Tobias, they don't hurt. And for the blood, it's common for women to bleed the first time. You know this, you took upper levels." I reach up and brush a tear off his cheek. "If I was scared of you or you hurt me, then would I really be standing here asking you to join me in the shower? If you had hurt me during sex then would I have left marks on you?" I pull him to our sink and show the marks on his chest that I left.

Tobias doesn't say anything. He just gently touches the marks I left his hand resting on the one I put right above his heart. "I love you."

I smile and pull him into a kiss. "I love you. Now, please take a shower with me?" I ask pulling him towards our large shower.

He smiles shyly before finally agreeing. During our shower he worships my body kissing each and every mark he left on me. He washes my body for me with my soft sponge. When we get out he applies my lotion for me, taking the time to once again worship my body.

I dress in a black turtleneck, a maroon and black tie dye T-shirt tucked into a pair of black jeans that are ripped at the knees. I pull my wet hair up into space buns before we finally leave. I keep Tobias' hand tight in mine scared he's going to leave the moment I let go. When we make it to lunch I smile when I see our little boy sitting in his booster seat his head constantly swiveling as he looks for us.

"Hey." Tobias greets the table before leaning down to kiss Theseus' head. "Hey buddy!"

"Daddy!" Theseus reaches up and wraps his arms around Tobias when he picks our boy up. "I missed you so much!"

"Yeah? I missed you too!" Tobias grins holding him tight in his arms.

I smile and wrap my arms around them. "Did you miss me?" I ask and Theseus grins at me.

"Of course I missed you mommy." He kisses my cheek before cuddling back into Tobias.

I smile at my boys as I sit down at our table and start to eat. We had originally planned to go with my mom to the hospital, but she decided she wanted to go alone. She didn't want to overwhelm my dad with meeting me and my family. Which I understand. I just miss my dad.

I sit on the couch with Theseus in my arms, he's asleep finally. The park wore him out, but he had battled against his nap wanting to spend time with Tobias. We promised Theseus we would stay home for dinner and spend the rest of the day together.

I look up from the couch when I hear Tobias' phone ring. He was doing some prep for dinner. "Hello?" I hear him answer as he comes to the couch. "Yes, this is he." He nods a few times before immediately grabbing my hand. "Yes! Yes, I'd like to meet them. Both of them."

I smile at him knowing it's the phone call he's been waiting for all day.

"Tomorrow afternoon? That should work." Tobias puts the phone on mute and looks at me. "They want to meet me and Theseus."

"You can meet them tomorrow." I say encouraging him with a smile. "I just have to work tomorrow. I’m only off today because interrogations ran so late and the other two are trying to wrap their head around everything. Tomorrow I have to jump in to work."

Tobias frowns and looks down. "I really wanted them to meet you."

"I know." I reach up and brush over his cheek. "How about you invite them to dinner? I should be done with work by dinner. Then we can all meet them and spend time with them."

Tobias nods and resumes his phone call to plan out the meeting. It's still unbelievable to me that he has so many siblings.

My thoughts get interrupted by my own phone ringing. I carefully grab it making sure not to disturb the little boy in my arms. "Hello?"

"Tris! Hey, it's Evin. Eagle and I were talking a little after everything." Evin says his voice still a little shaky from the events of last night and this morning. "We've always had five leaders and had we know you're still pretty new to the leader team."

"Okay?" I don't really know what's going on.

"We want you to be the head leader. I mean you and Four figured out what was happening and you two saved Dauntless from falling into the wrong hands and committing genocide against Abnegation." Eagle cuts in.

My mouth drops and I look over my shoulder at Tobias who is still on his own phone call. "Me? In charge of the whole faction?"

"We would still be by your side helping, but you obviously have shown you have what it takes and Dauntless would be better off with you as the head leader than one of us." Evin chimes back in.

"Are you two sure? I wouldn't want either of you to want the position and be upset about giving it to me." I run my hand through my hair that I finally took down. "If either of you want the position then please let me know."

"Oh no, I don't want the position." Evin sighs. "I barely wanted to be a leader to begin with. I’m perfectly happy watching over the Factionless and fence workers."

"And I don't think I would be a good head leader. I can barely keep track of infractions half the time." Eagle adds in.

"If you're really sure about this." I say as Tobias finally walks over to me his phone call over. "We'll get started tomorrow morning bright and early. We need to name two more leaders to give us back our original five. Then we will need to assess the damage and the population drop from the spies."

"And this is why you're the perfect fit." Evin says and I hear papers rustling. "I have the final number somewhere. If you'd like I can compile a list of all the jobs we are now missing."

"Yes, and Eagle, please pull files on the fence workers. I want to look and see who we can promote out of working the fence and into the jobs we are missing." I run a hand through my hair. "Please also make sure you rest and don't work too hard. Tomorrow at lunch we can make the announcement and before then we can talk about bringing in two other leaders."

"Sounds good, Tris." Eagle says before the call ends.

"What was that about?" Tobias asks sitting down next to me.

I run my hand through my hair and lean my head back against the back of the couch. I stare at the ceiling still absolutely floored by the decision of the other two. "They named me the head leader of Dauntless."

"What?"

"They didn't want to be head leader and since I've already been a leader they want me to be head leader."

"That's amazing, Tris."

"Amazingly stressful." I rub my face before taking a deep breath. "So, who ended up calling you about your brothers?"

"Ah, Jack did." Tobias gently rubs Theseus' back noticing our boy scrunching up his face. "Said my older brother was shocked to learn about his family, but was really excited to meet me. And then the other had transitioned so she's my sister. Jack said she was completely floored learning she had been adopted, but was really excited to meet me. And you're right, she is from Amity."

I smile at him and brush over his cheek. "And what about your older brother?"

"Ah, he's Candor. Jack spoke highly of him."

"That's good. I’m excited to meet them."

"I’m glad you're excited. I’m nervous as hell." Tobias chuckles slightly. "But they're coming over for dinner tomorrow to meet all three of us."

"Don't be nervous." I pull him down for a gentle kiss. "They're going to love you and Theseus."

Tobias smiles and pulls both of us close to him. "I love you."

"And I love you." I smile at him as we cuddle together while our son naps.

Chapter Text

Chapter Twenty

"Who do you think should be the other two leaders?" I ask as Evin, Eagle, and I sit in my new office. I ended up taking over Max's office which I was a little sad about because I loved my big glass wall, but it was necessary.

"I don't know about Evin, but I was thinking about Four." Eagle speaks up. "I mean, looking at his records he is obviously an exceptional member of Dauntless. I know you already know this, Tris. But he's the one with the lowest amount of fears, he's obviously well known, he's been working in the control room for years. He did start leader training after initiation, but pulled out halfway through."

I nod with what Eagle says knowing that yeah, Tobias would be an amazing leader. "Evin, what are your thoughts on it?"

"Four honestly scares me. I think he could be good as a leader." She says fiddling with her shirt.

"How about we ask him to come here and we let him know we're considering him for the job? If he wants to accept then we can do an interview of sorts. If he doesn't want to accept then we respect his decision." I send him a text letting him know he is needed in the office. "While we wait for him, who else do you two think could fit nicely in a leadership role?"

"Harrison," Evin speaks up, "he's also a very well known member of Dauntless. He's the head of security for the Dauntless police patrols. He knows every inch of Dauntless and is often the first responder to emergencies both in and out of Dauntless."

"Oh yeah!" Eagle digs around for his file before handing it over to me. "He's an older member, but he's well liked by everyone. He often will visit victims after incidents to make sure they're okay. He came to my unit multiple times after my father finally turned in my mother for domestic violence. He made my father feel better instead of shameful."

I look over the file and see the amazing things that have happened because of Harrison's work in Dauntless. He does seem like a very caring person who values people being brave over reckless, which is what we want for Dauntless. I nod and send him a text as well to come to the offices for a meeting. "We'll do the same for him as we are for Four. Let him know we're considering him for the position and interview if he wishes to be a leader."

A knock comes at the door and I look up while calling out for the person to come in. "Hey." Tobias says walking in on guard with his Four mask on tight. "You said it was urgent."

"Yes," I say gesturing for him to sit down on the couch, "I told you yesterday we're looking for two new leaders to fill the spots of Eric and Max."

"More like Eric and Tris." Evin chimes in not really able to meet Tobias' eyes.

"Yes, I remember." Tobias raises an eyebrow at me and I smile.

"Evin and Eagle both think you would be an amazing fit as a leader. I wanted to remain as impartial as I can, but you know my feelings on the matter." I lean my elbows on the table and place my chin on my hands. "What do you think about possibly being a leader?"

Tobias shifts slightly in the chair and looks at the other two. "Respectfully, I appreciate the thought and consideration for the job." Tobias says running his hands down his pants leg. "But I will be declining the offer. I enjoy my job in the control room and training initiates. I don't see myself being a leader now or any time soon. Besides, if I became a leader it could then cause those who know me more than Tris to treat me higher in rank than her. And those who understand we're together could cause questions on why I was given the job in the first place."

I knew he would never accept the offer. He wouldn't want to be a leader because he doesn't think he fits in to Dauntless. I nod ignoring Eagle and Evin's shocked faces. "If you could pick any member to be a faction leader, who would you choose?"

"Honestly?" Tobias asks and I nod. "Hana Pedrad. She's worked in the control room since the end of her initiation. She's smart, kind, and would happily help anyone in need. Not only that, but she's easy to talk to and gives a very mother like essence about her. Yes, she is the mother of my best friend, but after working beside her and her son, I know she is impartial and isn't afraid to tell you how it is."

I nod and write down her name. "Thank you, Four." I smile and dismiss him.

"Wow." Evin huffs looking at me. "I never thought he would deny being a leader."

"I did." I shrug with a smile. "We've talked about it before I became a leader, during my initiation. He has no desire to be in power. And while I think that would make him an excellent leader, he refuses any time I bring it up."

"And so you let us waste time?" Eagle asks a little upset at me.

"No, I let you see I’m impartial. If I bring in or offer anyone up for leadership it will inevitably end up being someone I know very well. I’m still a new member of Dauntless so the only people I know are my friends and my husband." I explain getting up to pace a little. "But, showing you that even with my husband I am impartial then that gives me a safety net. If we end up choosing anyone I know the Dauntless people can attempt to call favoritism, but you two are witness to me remaining impartial."

"It is smart." Evin says with a sigh. "I was nervous about offering him up as a leader because of your relationship. I didn't know if you could remain impartial, but even just offering an interview to him if had had taken the job made me feel better."

"The intelligence only proves why we chose you to be our head leader." Eagle sighs with a smile the upset erased with understanding of why I hid my knowledge from them. "So do you have another nomination for leadership?"

"I do." I sit back down in my chair. "I have three. Will Drake, Uriah Pedrad, and Zeke Pedrad. Will is intelligent and calculated, but also a very friendly man, very personable. Uriah is friendly and very open with everyone near him. He can be a bit unserious, but when he is serious he means business. As for Zeke, he is my husband's best friend, but he is also becoming one of my best friends. He's smart but honest. He tells you how it is. Yes, he can be a goofball like his brother, but he's still a very genuine person. These three also helped me with the plan to take down Jeanine and the Dauntless leaders."

"You've thought about this." Evin smiles and I nod. "Let's talk to Harrison and then we can move on from there."

"I agree, let's interview Harrison if he wants the job then interview the other four, I do want to speak to Hana. And then we can make a decision." Eagle says.

A knock comes and Harrison walks in when allowed. He's a tall, large man. He wears just a black long sleeve shirt, a red puffer vest, and black pants. His long straight greying blonde hair is pulled back into a ponytail at the base of his head.

"Hello." He greets shaking all of our hands. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Tris. I've heard nothing but good things about you."

"And I about you, Harrison." I smile before we get down to business. "Harrison, what I’m about to tell you cannot leave this room until an announcement is made. I’m sure you're curious as to why we are meeting in Max's office but he is not here. He's been arrested with Eric and Jeanine of Erudite. They conspired to use Dauntless to attack Abnegation. I was able to stop them with the help of some people. This has left us being two leaders short." I explain and he nods. "Eagle and Evin suggested we talk to you about the possibility of you becoming a leader."

"All due respect, may I ask why you're the one leading this meeting?" Harrison asks and I nod.

"Absolutely, Evin and Eagle had expressed that they wish for me to be the head leader of Dauntless. They both are comfortable with their areas of work as Dauntless leaders and don't wish to step up as head leader. Since I was already a leader and have been the council representative since I became a leader, we decided together I would take the head leader position." I explain before grabbing his file. "If you wish to accept the possibility of being a leader we will do an interview. We are considering other candidates and want to discuss all our options."

"Yes, ma'am." Harrison says and I look at him.

"There's no need to be so formal." I smile. "But, tell me about yourself and why you think you would be a good fit."

Harrison smiles at me and nods. "Apologies, Tris. I do appreciate the offer of being a leader and I would like a chance to step up and help run this faction. The way Max and Eric ran the faction led to more recklessness and cruelty of Dauntless. I witnessed more and more domestic violence cases get swept under the rug which led to more suicides of the victim. While we hurt for numbers, as you know, they only allowed for 10 initiates to pass initiation. I believe there are those who fit Dauntless and those who did not, but I can assure you and I’m sure you know that number is more than just 10." Harrison speaks easily and like we are just old friends, but he is still respectful in his tone. "I think I would be a good leader because of the good I've seen my actions do. Eagle is a witness to that, I’m sure. Tris, I’m sorry I did not have the numbers to watch Dauntless when you were attacked during initiation and I’m sorry for the death of your friend."

Harrison didn't know me during initiation. How did he know about the attack? I sit up a bit straighter. "That attack was never reported. Four and I both agreed it would be better not to speak about it."

"I’m the head of security for Dauntless. The moment Drew was taken to the infirmary by Four they knew something had happened." Harrison explains. "Drew spilled everything the moment I showed up in his room to interrogate him. Eric and Max brushed off the incident saying it was just initiation cracking down on the weak ones and driving them out."

I look down at my desk and take a deep breath. They knew about the attack. They knew what had happened and they kept Peter. I look back up and nod. "Knowing about the incident and those who were involved. How would you have handled the situation had Max and Eric not swept it under the rug?"

"I would have conducted interviews with everyone involved, you, Peter, Drew, Al, and Four. I would have watched the camera footage. If the evidence proved them guilty, which I’m sure it would have, I would have urged for Peter, Drew, and Al be punished depending on who the leader of the little group was." Harrison answers calmly and I nod.

"Eagle, Evin, do either of you have questions?" I ask wanting to give them a chance to ask about his experience or talents.

They both take turns asking a few questions. I also ask a few additional questions. When we're finished and Harrison has left I have a page of notes full of nothing but positive marks for Harrison being a leader. I don't doubt we will pick him.

We interview Will, Zeke, and Uriah next as Hana did an overnight shift in the control room and we wanted to let her rest. Will declined the offer wishing to stay as an ambassador. Zeke was absolutely floored and did fairly well, but in the end decided that while he was doing the interview he didn't think the job was for him. He said it was too serious of a role and with his incoming proposal and marriage he didn't want to stress about being a leader and one day a father. Which I understand. I do worry about Theseus and any threats that come to him because I’m a leader, but I don't let my fear guide me away from work I know I can do. Uriah did accept, and while he is a very good leader and very nice. After he left Evin, Eagle and I decided he's still a little too playful and unserious to be a leader. But agreed that if a position were to open up in the future he would be considered first.

I look up when Hana walks in. She looks just like her sons, with beautifully tanned skin with a bright smile. I see the essence Tobias was talking about. She just overflows with a motherly attitude.

"Hana, it's lovely to meet you." I say standing to shake her hand. "I've heard nothing but amazing things about you, and your recipes are to die for."

"Tris." Hana grins before she comes around my desk to hug me. "I've been dying to meet you." She says before greeting Evin and Eagle with a hug as well. "Evin, dear how is your father?"

"He's good, his cancer is reacting well to the treatment and he's expected to go into remission next year." Evin grins, I didn't know her father had cancer.

"That's amazing. I'll have to go visit him after lunch." Hana smiles before looking at Eagle. "And how is your dad? He went on a first date the other day, right? How was it?"

Eagle smiles and nods. "His first date after coming out. He's really happy and the woman he went out with is also trans so they hit it off immediately."

"Good." Hana sits down finally and smiles. "So, what can I do for the leaders of this faction?"

"Well, I’m not sure what Zeke and Uriah have told you. I hope it wasn't much as it was sensitive information. But Max and Eric had paired with Jeanine to overthrow Abnegation by using Dauntless. We were able to stop them and keep them from breaking the faction system." I explain and continue to explain why she was here and what we would be doing.

The interview goes very well. She's definitely Zeke and Uriah's mother, but she's careful with her words and actions. She knows when she can be funny and joke around and she knows when it's time to be serious.

When she leaves I look at Evin and Eagle. "I think we know our new leaders." I smile and they nod. "Let's call Harrison and Hana back so we can walk together to make the announcement. Then, I'd like to give Hana some rest since she did work all night in the control room. We can go over Harrison's responsibilities with him. Before we start to work on anything on the computers I would like to have them looked at to make sure there are no bugs or anything on them that would cause issues later."

We call the other two back and congratulate them on being leaders before we head to lunch. The cafeteria silences when the five of us walk in with me in front. I guide us up to the balcony of the cafeteria.

"Members of Dauntless, I’m sure you're all curious as to why we are here this morning giving an announcement. Over the last month Eric and Max had been working under Erudite's thumb gearing up to attack Abnegation. They were going to use a simulation serum to control us into committing genocide. A team of well trusted individuals had helped me take them down and stop this plan from going into action." I announce before clapping to stop the whispers going around. "After speaking with Eagle and Evin we decided moving forward I would be the head leader of Daunless and we would add on two new leaders. We conducted interviews and carefully selected the two who stand with us today. Harrison Coals and Hana Pedrad are the two new leaders of Dauntless."

Cheers erupt through the cafeteria and I step back to let Hana and Harrison soak it all in. After a few minutes I step back up and silence the cafeteria. "I’m sure you all have questions and concerns. I will team up with the ambassadors and we will host a meeting for you all to come to and ask questions. Until then please do not bombard us."

I dismiss the others for lunch before heading down to my usual table. I smile as Theseus claps with the rest of our friends. "Okay, okay, calm down." I flush as I kiss Theseus' hair.

"You're amazing, Tris." Kai grins as I grab food.

"No, seriously, so many people are already whispering about how you're going to be a great leader." Christina says and I just roll my eyes.

"Guys, it's not that big of a deal. Okay?" I feel Tobias reach around Theseus and rub my shoulder.

"It is." He says with a smile. "She tried to offer me a job."

"Yeah, why didn't he get the job?" Shauna asks and I look at Tobias.

"He refused it, and so did Zeke and Will." I shrug as I eat my lunch. "The offer was there for an interview for the position. If he didn't want to even interview I can't force him."

"You interviewed for the leader position?" Shauna stares at Zeke.

"Yeah, but let's be honest. The only people who can be leaders and parents are Tris and Four. I would be too anxious about anything happening to my family." Zeke says wrapping his arm around Shauna. "And no job is worth putting you at risk."

"I also interviewed." Uriah chimes in with a smile. "I’m too swag for them though so they're benching me until the nice opening."

Conversation at the table returns to normal and I just enjoy this normalcy knowing that when I get back to the office it will be insane.

Chapter Text

Chapter Twenty-one:

Work for the rest of the day went by really fast. We got Zeke, Tobias and few other programmers to work on the computers in the offices to make sure all our technology was okay and not going to give away any more secrets.  My mom called saying she was going to stay with my dad and thanked us for hosting her for so long. I will miss having my mom with us, but I’m glad to hear my dad is progressively remembering more and more.

I walk into the unit after picking Theseus up from daycare for the day. The unit smells heavenly. I help Theseus with his shoes before he runs off to the kitchen.

"Daddy!" Theseus grins up at Tobias. I lean against the doorway watching our son hide a piece of artwork behind his back for his dad.

"Thee!" Tobias grins picking up our son before setting him on the counter. "How was daycare?"

"Good! I made you a drawing!" Theseus pulls the painting from behind his back and holds it out. "This is you and this is me and this is mommy." He points at the stick figures and I tear up seeing the stick figure with yellow and red lines for hair.

"Wow!" Tobias smiles also with tears in his eyes. "Buddy, this is amazing! You drew this?"

"Yeah!" Theseus cheers with a giant grin on his face.

"Well this needs to go on the fridge so everyone can see it!" Tobias grabs a magnet and makes sure the painting is secured before picking Theseus up in his arms again. "You're so talented, Theseus!"

"Thank you daddy!" Theseus grins up at him before kissing his cheek. "I love you."

"I love you, too, Theseus." Tobias grins kissing Theseus' forehead. "Now, Theseus, we are going to have guests over today. Do you remember when we adopted you?"

Theseus nods. "Yeah! You became my daddy and mommy became my mommy."

"But before we adopted you I was your brother, remember? We had the same birth mommy." Tobias is gentle as he talks to Theseus making my heart soar with love for this man.

"Yeah, but I don't like her. She not nice." Theseus frowns. "Please don't send me back, daddy. Please. I be good!"

"Woah, woah." Tobias cups Theseus' cheeks in his hands. "Baby boy, you are good. You are so good. You're the best son I could ever ask for. You are not leaving this family. I’m your daddy forever and ever."

"And I am your mommy, forever and ever." I promise wrapping an arm around Tobias' waist. "Daddy is just trying to tell you about our guests. You're not going to live with anyone else but us."

Theseus nods and Tobias continues. "Well, the two people who are coming share the same mommy as us. You're going to meet Emmett who is my big brother and then Rosalie who is my little sister. I already told them that I’m your daddy, but we're still all siblings."

Theseus nods then pauses and stares at Tobias then at me. "Will I have a little sister?"

"Maybe in a few years." Tobias chuckles saving me the embarrassment of thinking about pregnancy. "When mommy and daddy are ready to have two troublemakers in the house then maybe you will get a little sibling. But mommy is busy running Dauntless and making it safe for you."

Theseus looks up at me and grins. "Mommy is amazing!"

I scoop him up in my arms and spin us around a little. I press kisses all over his face making him scream with laughter. "I love you!" I giggle with him before I let him calm down. "Why don't you go wash your hands for dinner while I help daddy?"

"Okay!" I set Theseus down and he goes to run before remembering he needs to walk.

"Thank you for walking." Tobias calls after him before wrapping his arms around me. "So."

"So, our son wants a little sibling." I smile wrapping my arms around his neck.

"He's been secretly asking me for a few days." Tobias admits picking me up and setting me on the counter. "He really likes the idea of being a big brother and having a little sister he gets to protect."

"That's really cute." I smile brushing through Tobias' curls. "But, not now. Maybe in two or three years. When I’m at least 18."

"Oh, yeah, no. Plus you're going to be a very busy woman running Dauntless." Tobias says before he looks a little more serious. "I think, when we decide to have more children, I'll stay home with them at least until they can go to school. Daycare is nice, but I feel like we would miss out on so much of their lives if we both worked."

"You are such an amazing father." I grin at him before pulling him into a kiss.

"Eww!" Theseus giggles from the door with his eyes covered.

"You think mommy's kisses are gross?" I ask getting off the counter to scoop him up.

"No!" Theseus smiles kissing my cheek.

"Do you think daddy's kisses are gross?" Tobias asks and Theseus shakes his head and kisses his cheek.

"Silly boy." I smile before looking at Tobias. We both immediately pepper his face with kisses making him scream in laughter.

Our doorbell rings and I look at Tobias. "Why don't I finish up dinner and you two go greet our guests?"

"Sounds good, thank you." Tobias kisses my cheek before taking Theseus and walking off.

I return to the spaghetti and meatballs to finish up. I add the baked meatballs to the sauce and make sure the noodles are done. I toss a salad quickly as I hear the four greeting each other in the living room. I plate everything in severing dishes before setting the table.

"And this is my wife, Tris." Tobias says as he walks in with them.

I turn and smile before noticing who Emmett is. "Hey, how are you doing?" I ask as I shake his hand. Tobias looks at us and I smile at him. "He's an ambassador for Candor, he runs the meetings there."

"Yes, Tris is honestly the first Dauntless who doesn't get on my nerves. She knows what she wants and instead of demanding she works with us." Emmett says before looking at Rosalie.

I smile and immediately hug her. "Hey, I love the new name." I whisper to her before pulling back. "Rosalie is definitely a better name for you."

"Thank you." Rosalie smiles before looking at Tobias. "I’m sorry for my father's behavior when it comes to Theseus. I’m not sure why he thinks he can pick and choose which children he likes."

"It's okay, we're getting close to cutting him off." Tobias says before telling everyone to take a seat.

"So, how long have you known Four?" Emmett asks and I look at Tobias with a smile.

"I met Four on choosing day when I came to Dauntless." I explain letting Tobias decide if he wishes to explain more about who he is.

"I knew Tris from Abnegation. We grew up just down the street from her and I’m surprised that Candor put Rosalie so close to me and my mother in Abnegation." Tobias says as he carefully plated food for Theseus. "Evelyn never said that she went to Ethan. I’m not sure she knew."

"My father petitioned for custody of me. He told me one day that he went to Candor saying Evelyn put me up for adoption and he wanted custody. He explained to my mom that he had found me in Factionless and my mother had died in childbirth. They raised me and Susan as twins." Rosalie explains as she happily eats her food. "This is really good!"

"Thank you." Tobias smiles as I take care of cutting up Theseus' food. "So we have three other siblings out there. Jack says we won't be able to contact them until they become members of a faction and only if they decide to have contact with us."

"It's a little disappointing how she can have so many children and keep them so estranged from each other." Emmett sighs before looking at Tobias. "I wish to apologize to you."

"What for?" Tobias asks confused as he sips his water.

"I read the reports Erudite put out when you first transferred. I thought you were horrible leaving your widowed father in Abnegation. But then the other reports came out. I just..." Emmett takes a deep breath and reaches over. "I just wish I could have been there to keep you safe. I grew up in a loving home with a little brother who was bullied in school and it got so bad he ended his life before he could choose. He would have been your age."

Tobias immediately grips Emmett's hand in his. "I’m okay. I know how you feel. I knew about our little sister who is nine years younger than me. It would keep me up at night not knowing if she was safe when I finally learned about her. But seeing you, Rosalie, Theseus. I have hope. And I've learned a lot from Dauntless so I’m ready to protect you all if need be."

Rosalie gently sets her hand on top of the other two. "We will be there for them the moment they find out. Okay? And we should stay in touch. I love Susan, but she can be... religious." Her eyes flick over to me and I look down.

"We'll stay in touch. Right, Theseus?" Tobias asks and Theseus looks up from his spaghetti.

"Yeah!" He grins before diving back in to his food.

"You two are always welcome to visit and we can always come visit you." I chime in. "And when we have an actual wedding you two will obviously be invited to celebrate with us"

"Really? You two will have a wedding?" Rosalie asks nearly bouncing in her chair. "I know the perfect place in Amity! It's quiet and beautiful and in the spring it will smell heavenly with all the apple blossoms."

"We'll keep it in mind." Tobias smiles as he returns to eating. "Tris is the head leader of Dauntless now, so it will be awhile before we can really plan anything."

"Congratulations!" Rosalie grins clapping her hands.

"Congrats, Tris. From what I've seen, you'll do amazing." Emmett smiles and shakes my hand.

When dinner is over I take the dishes and start to wash them to give the siblings time to talk. I methodically wash the dishes by hand loving the work of it. Makes me miss my parents. As I dry the dishes I see my phone start to ring, Evin is calling me. Weird.

I dry off my hands before grabbing my phone. "Hey, Evin. I thought you would take the night off since we did a lot of work today."

"There's an emergency." Evin's voice is shaking. "Get to the chasm asap."

I immediately hang up and speed out of the kitchen. I drop a kiss to Theseus' head before dropping one on Tobias'. "Sorry, there's an emergency at the chasm." I say before hugging Rosalie and shaking Emmett's hand. "Nice to see you both again and I hope to see you soon."

I pull on my shoes and leather jacket before racing out. I skid through the halls and down the paths carefully until I’m at the chasm. Unfortunately everyone is crowding around.

I whistle as loud as I can. "Hey! Move! Let me through." Immediately everyone parts and I make my way through.

"Tris!" Evin calls and then points out someone dangling from the chasm lifeless.

"A suicide?" I ask as I walk over and inspect the rope. It's too neat of a knot. It didn't slip. It didn't swing at all. It was like someone hung him from the railing. "Pull him up."

Two absolutely terrifying Dauntless members carefully pull him up by the rope before we get him on the bridge.

"Gloves." I call and someone immediately hands me surgical gloves. "Clear the area, I don't want anyone here but the leaders and the coroner." I demand as I start to inspect the neck of the victim. I gently press on his neck, weird.

"Tris." I look up to see the coroner walking up with gloves on. "What's going on?"

"I think his hyoid is still intact." I whisper. As they start to investigate I look along their hairline. "Needle mark behind their ear. We need a full blood panel, tox screen, I want any and every scan we can get of his neck that will show us information."

"Right away Tris." The coroner gets up and orders his orderlies to get the body on the stretcher before rushing off to the infirmary/morgue.

I look at the railing and frown. It's too wet for finger prints to stick. "You." I point to one of the terrifying Dauntless members. He has bright white eyes that are obviously contacts and all his tattoos are done in white ink which pops against his dark skin. "I need you to take pictures of the scene and process anything we can. The rope, the rail, the victims clothes. I want to know if any DNA from our killer got on him. And I know it's slick from the water, but at least see if there are finger prints." I turn to the other who has a giant spider tattoo on their neck. "And you need to take witness statements. Anything and everything."

"Yes, ma'am." They say before splitting off to work.

I look at Evin who looks shaken. "Hey, I've got it handled, you've done your job. Go home." I don't know what's going on, but I do not need this anxious energy here making it worse.