"Hello. My name is Natalie, I'm Beatrice's mother."
Four had seen Tris and her mother as they hugged and spoke. He saw the smile on Tris's face when she had seen her mother, the first real smile since she had arrived. Faction before blood did not seem to be an option for either of them.
Beatrice's mother holds out her hand, and Four shakes it. After these years, he still had not strayed far from his Abnegation upbringing. The shake is awkward between the both of them, and he tries not to look into her face, afraid that he would be recognized.
He had recognized her as she had entered the Dauntless compound. She looked around curiously, betraying Abnegation values. Natalie, wife to Andrew Prior. They knew his father and worked alongside him. Four was not one to accompany his father to dinners at the Priors' home or to Abnegation gatherings.
"Four, it's nice to meet you," she says to him.
"Four."
"Is that a nickname?" Tris's mother asks.
"Yes," Four answers. He pauses, unsure of what to talk about. "Your daughter is doing well here. I've been overseeing her training."
"That's good. I know a few things about Dauntless initiation, and I was worried about her," she says, looking to Tris. Tris just watches them closely as they converse.
Four turnes back to Tris's mother and finds an odd look on her face. She speaks of the Dauntless initiation as if she knows how morbid it is.
"You have nothing to worry about," Four assures her.
"You look familiar for some reason Four."
This begins to make Four nervous. Had he been wrong about Tris's mother? Her expression revealed what he had been worried about.
"I can't imagine why," Four tells her, "I don't make a habit of hanging around the Abnegation."
Tris's mother seems to understand his meaning and just laughs, "Few people do nowadays. I don't take it personally."
Four finds himself at the chasm, watching as the families depart. There was never a time when he wishes he were them.
"Calming, isn't it?" a voice asks. Four turns to the left of himself and finds Tris's mother. She smiles and turns to look at the rushing water. Her expression suddenly changes. "The sound of the rush of the water, that is."
"How do you find Dauntless compound?" Four asks, suddenly aware of how Abnegation he had sounded, directing the conversation towards the other person.
"I find it well," she says, "It has not changed at all."
Four's eyes widened. He was not one to be curious, but this was something he had not expected out of a woman like Natalie Prior. Someone who seemed Abnegation all and throughout. "You were Dauntless?" he asked.
"I was," she answered, turning back to him, "And you were once Abnegation, Tobias."
This was it. This was something he always wondered about, when something like this would happen. "So you know?" Four asked.
"You have your father's eyes, Tobias," she says and nothing else. She looked at the water again, both hands behind her back.
"So? Are you going to ask me why?" Four asks suddenly.
"Ask what?" she replies. He could see from the look in her eyes that she knows what he is talking about, but she does not say.
"Why I left Abnegation," he tells her. He expects her to ask why, but instead, she smiles again.
"It is not my business to know why you had made your choice," she says. She looks to the rest of the compound, as if taking a breath. "You are the only one who knows the reason," she tells him and turns to leave.
"Watch after her," she says, walking towards the exit.