AN: Thank you all for the reviews, feedback and follows. I'm still shaking off the rust so please be patient with me. i sincerely appreciate all of you.
Tris' eyes flutter open and she's surprised by her familiar surroundings. The bile is burning at the back of her throat and with a rush she untangles herself from the blankets and runs into the hallway bathroom to empty the contents of her stomach.
"Finally awake?" Peter asks as he leans against the bathroom doorway.
"Mmmhmm" Tris moans as she maneuvers to keep her hair from the toilet. She leans back a bit and begins to pull her hair into a bun.
"Christina...?" she asks nervously.
"Not here." Peter replies. "Care to explain how it is that I'm still listed as your emergency contact in your cell phone?"
"I'm sorry." Tris croaks. "I don't even remember what happened last night."
"Last night?" Peter exclaims. "You've been passed out for two fucking days Tris!"
"What? No! My job..." She scrambles to get to her feet.
"You should check your damn phone. You lost your job again. Your boss had been calling nonstop and when I finally answered she told me to come pick up your stuff." Peter replies. "Tris, when I went by your apartment to try to get some of your things there was another lock on the door, and this." He hands her what clearly is a legal eviction notice.
"Oh fuck." Tris whispers, defeated. Peter finally pushes away from the door frame and moves so he is in front of her.
"What were you doing in Candor, Tris?" He asks.
"What are you talking about?" Her face twists in confusion.
"Come on, let's get out of the bathroom." Peter sighs.
"Give me a second to clean up, please?" Tris asks and Peter nods before exiting the bathroom. Tris grabs her toiletry bag from Peter's closet and quickly brushes her teeth, combs through her messy hair before twisting it into a bun again and washes her face. The pale woman with the freckled cheeks who is staring back at her looks like a stranger. She sighs before dropping her bag back into the closet and heading out to his living room with her head spinning. Candor? No job?
"What day is it?" she asks timidly.
Peter just stares at her for several uncomfortable seconds before taking a deep breath in. "Wednesday. You were last here late Sunday night, well early Monday morning when Christina was here. Right as I walked Chris back to her place I started getting calls from your number, then suddenly it was this weird number when I didn't answer your calls. At first I ignored them and let them go to voicemail, but once I checked my messages I realized that you were in some pretty serious trouble. You passed out again, this time in some seedy bar in Candor of all places. How the fuck did you even end up over there?"
"I ran. When I left here I just ran. I don't know, I just kept thinking about shit..." Tris trails off suddenly.
"Is this about Christina?" He asks.
"Peter, please. I can't."
"No, this isn't a matter of what you can or can't do, it's all about what you won't do!" He says firmly. "How do you think I feel being caught in the middle of this shit? Are you too fucking selfish to realize that this "friendship" could end up costing me my relationship?"
"I didn't think she knew about us being friends." She whispers in response and Peter shakes his head angrily.
"That doesn't even matter. What does matter is what happened Monday. What did you do to get kicked out of that place?" He asks.
"The bar?"
"Yes! The woman who called me and told me you were no longer welcome." He replies angrily.
"I didn't do anything. I ran there, I ordered a drink, and the bartender dragged me into a storage room and asked me who sent me." Tris replies.
"That makes no damn sense. What are you not telling me?"
Flashback
Tobias stirs next to her, turning onto his stomach before softly snoring again. Tris looks over at him and marvels at the way the moonlight highlights his bronzed skin. His back is exposed, the light sheet barely covering him at all. She takes the time to study his mysterious tattoo while he's relaxed and sleeping.
The flames seem to be covering something, she's noticed faint scarring that crisscrosses his back, neither of them have brought them up but she's felt them in their more intimate moments.
She's noticed he seems more uncomfortable discussing the symbols that run down his spine. Each symbol is inside of a circle, the top one being a pair of hands, followed by a beautiful tree, then the scales of justice, another that looks like an eye and finally a different type of flame pattern.
Tris grabs her phone to try and sneak a pic of the tattoo but the flash wakes him up.
"Did you really just take a pic of me?" He asks sleepily.
"You just looked too cute." She replies. "I'm sorry for waking you."
"S'ok." He murmurs before flopping his arm over her and going right back to sleep.
End Flashback
"I need to go." Tris says.
"Tris, please talk to me." Peter replies softly.
"I'm fine. You're right, our friendship greatly jeopardizes your relationship with Christina. I appreciate you and everything you've done."
"Tris... you can't go back to your apartment anymore… and you can't stay here…" Peter begins but is cut off by his cell phone ringing. Tris looks down and sees Christina's face on the display. She smiles briefly before walking out of the room to gather her things. She has her bag slung over her shoulder and quietly lets herself out of the apartment, careful not to disturb Peter's conversation. Once she's made it back to the street level she retraces her running route in an attempt to find the Candor bar she was in earlier this week.
"Think Tris." She mutters. She does a quick search on her cell phone for bars in Candor and calls each of them asking to speak to Tori. After five unsuccessful calls, the sixth is the charm when she reaches out to a bar named Bud's Place.
"She's not here." The gruff voice responds when she asks for Tori.
"Does she work tonight?" She asks but the line goes dead.
She quickly searches for directions to the bar and takes off jogging. Taking note of her surroundings makes her understand Peter's trepidation on her being in this part of town alone at night, however she keeps a decent pace and makes it to the bar without issue. The place seems pretty slow, and Tris makes her way to the same back bar she was at previously, taking a seat while keeping an eye out for any familiar faces.
"Hey there, can I get you anything? Menu with the specials is right here..." the dark haired man nods to his left towards a chalkboard, "and we have twenty-two beers on tap. Name's Bud, I'll be taking care of you."
"Bud, as in the namesake?" Tris asks.
"One in the same." He smiles.
"It's kind of nice to see the namesake out here working in the trenches too." Tris replies with a nervous smile of her own. She's terrible at small talk, especially when sober.
"Being short staffed will do it to you. Had to send someone out to a store run, how a bar runs out of lemons is beyond me." He rolls his eyes.
"Um, I need a job if you're hiring." Tris replies quickly. She hopes her appearance from sleeping off her last bender isn't too disheveled as the words keep tumbling out of her mouth. "I've got lots of restaurant experience, um both front of house and in the kitchen… "
"You ever bartended?" He asks.
"Yes, I actually have." Tris replies.
"Oh yeah, anywhere I'd have heard of?" Bud asks as he dries off some beer mugs.
"The Pit, Dauntless." Tris replies in as even a voice as she can muster. Between nerves and her desperate need for a drink she can feel slight tremors in her body.
Bud quickly meets her eyes and stops what he's doing. "We've got another bartender from there." He says quietly.
"Here are your damn lemons. Maybe you'll think twice before letting Tori make the weekly orders next time?" Tris jumps at the unknown voice from next to her. He's dressed in dark jeans, a leather jacket and has a motorcycle helmet on.
"Thanks asshole. Hey, we have someone else here from the Pit who was looking for a bartending job." Bud offers and Tris watches the stiff body language as the man removes his jacket. She sees the myriad of maze tattoos on his arms and feels a chill run down her spine.
"Holy shit…." He murmurs once he has his helmet off.
"I didn't have a chance to get her name yet though." Bud says, unaware of the nervous energy between the two people in front of him.
"Tris Prior." The bartender says, cutting Bud off.
"Ok, good, you two do know each other then. I think she'd be a good fit. Eric, can you show her the ropes?" Bud says as he reaches across the bar to shake Tris' hand. "Miss Prior, I'd like to welcome you aboard. What happened over there at The Pit touched everyone in the community, and I for one want you to know you have a home here at Bud's."
Tris shakes the proffered hand. "Thank you." She says. It's everything she has to hold it together, and thankfully Bud either takes no notice to her behavior, or chalks it up to where she came from. He nods his head to Eric before heading away from the bar.
"How are you here?" Eric asks in a hushed voice.
"I could ask you the same thing." Tris replies. They don't have any more time to talk before a customer sits up at the bar. Eric and Tris work side by side, a familiarity between them that is unspoken as they easily help the few customers on a slow mid-week day shift.
"I need a drink." Tris says once things have quieted down. Eric nods, pulling two glasses out and pouring each of them a shot of whiskey. They both down two shots each before Eric puts the bottle back on the shelf.
"I'm here for the newbie." A familiar voice calls out and Tris turns to see the almond shaped brown eyes of Tori. "What the fuck are you doing here?" Tori asks.
"She's the newbie." Eric replies and Tori darts her eyes over at him.
"Not happening. I just kicked her out earlier this week for passing out at the bar. Bud really needs to hire with the head on his shoulders…" Tori grumbles and Eric puts a hand up to stop her.
"She's from The Pit." He says.
Tori's eyes turn hard as she faces the two. "How is that even possible? You of all people said…."
"It doesn't matter what I said. You can see with your own two eyes that she's here and she needs work. Are you going to take care of what Bud asked you to, or do I need to do that myself?" Eric growls.
"Fine. Follow me." Tori says to Tris and takes off down a hallway. She follows her into a cramped office and stands awkwardly as Tori shuts the door behind them. "Move the stuff and sit." She says as she cocks her head towards a chair with an overflowing box of paperwork sitting on it. Tris does as she's told and gingerly sits on the chair across the desk from an obviously agitated Tori.
"So…"
"You know damn well you shouldn't have come back here. Since you appear to actually be coherent this time, I'm going to give you one more chance to tell me who fucking sent you." Tori spits.
"I know you don't believe me, but I swear to you no one sent me." Tris replies.
"Then how do you know what these are?" Tori almost screeches as she yanks her shirt sleeves up to revel the faded symbols she has intertwined with her intricate arm sleeve tattoos.
"I don't know what they are. That's why I am hoping you can help me." Tris reaches for her phone and Tori quickly pulls a knife from her boot and shows it to Tris. "Oh my god, I'm not armed. Please…" Tris pleas. "Here, just grab my phone out of my bag, there is a picture there I want to show you."
Tori eyes her warily but quickly grabs the blonde's oversized shoulder bag and examines its contents thoroughly before grabbing the cell phone from the bag. She hands it over to Tris, who quickly unlocks it and scrolls to the picture she took of Tobias' tattoo the one morning while he was still sleeping. She shoves the phone across the cluttered desk towards Tori.
Tori looks at the phone and draws in a deep breath. "How do you have this?"
"I took it. He wouldn't tell me what it was, but I knew it had to be more to it based on how secretive he always was about it." Tris replies.
"Who is he to you?" Tori shoots back quickly.
"Do you recognize him from the tattoo?" Tris retorts.
Tori leans back in the chair and massages her temples with her fingertips. She definitely recognizes the tattoo and the person it belongs to, she is the one who gave it to him. What she doesn't understand is how the young woman in front of her came to be involved with the young man in the photo.
"No one has heard from him in months. How do you have this?" Tori replies.
"You know him. Please tell me what you know. Please." Tris replies as the tears she tries so hard to fight begin falling down her cheeks.
"First you tell me who he is to you, how you took this picture and where he is!" Tori almost shouts.
"He was my boyfriend, I took the pic while he was sleeping." Tris replies in a shaky voice.
"Where is he now?" Tori asks in a quieter tone.
"Dead."
